Without You
by Sulia Shincho
Summary: Sick of being taken so lightly Akane takes the chance to train with someone who is willing to teach her, and away from Ranma. RaAk
1. The Package

**Without You**

****

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

**I**'d like **to** make a couple of things **perfectly** clear first. **One**, don't flame, **you** are not **barbarians**, hopefully, so **be** civil with **any** insults you **may** have. Two, **none** of the **OCs** will be **affecting **the Ranma **relationships**, just spicying **them** up a **bit**. Okay? Are **we **clear on **this**? Good!

Thankfully, within all of life's "pleasant" ironies, it was Sunday! Though, just as disappointedly, Akane knew that Kasumi would soon send Nabiki to "wake' her despite Akane's wish to stay curled up under the blankets all day.

That's right, Akane wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and this time she wasn't sick, she was just low in spirits, and it wasn't only due to Nerima's general craziness. No indeed for if it had been only Nerima's craziness then Akane would not have lasted the last two-almost three-years since Ranma had arrived.

Akane had graduated from Furinkan High School and just spent the last four months being turned down from three Japan colleges for 'not meeting their requirements'. It just seemed as though she couldn't excel in anything anymore, not since Ranma arrived, and it depressed Akane to no ends.

_Why can't I do anything right?_ she wondered as she rolled over, careful not to squish P-Chan.

"Squee?" moaned P-Chan, opening his eyes a bit to stare back at Akane.

"Morning P-Chan, did you sleep well?" Akane inquired in a soft voice, contrary to what the piglet was used to hearing from her.

"Squee," yawned the piglet.

"At least one of us did," she smiled slightly, closing her eyes for a moment to catch at least a couple more seconds of shut eye…

There were two very quick but light knocks on the door before Nabiki's voice called out, "Akane, it's time for breakfast!" Just as Akane had known it would happen and now any of her hopes of gaining some extra sleep were shot. The world could be very cruel sometimes.

"Okay," Akane replied just loud enough for Nabiki to be assured that her baby sister was in fact awake. Forcing herself into a sitting position, Akane stretched out her arms and ignored the pain between her shoulder blades.

"Ready for another day of mayhem, P-Chan?" she asked the piglet. It just shook its head while observing Akane doing her morning stretches. "Me neither."

Sitting on her bed for a moment, Akane took a few seconds to just clear her mind by not thinking of anything in particular but rather just stare mindlessly at her covers until her piglet nudged her hand with its head.

"Yes, we shall go down to breakfast," Akane assured the black pig while scratching it gently behind the ear. "But you have to let me get dressed first," she whispered to her pet before jumping off the bed and digging through her drawers for some clothes.

It was a lot more difficult to pick out clothes everyday of the week without always having to wear the school uniform six out of the seven days of the week. Still, Akane managed to pick out a yellow skirt and turquoise top. Something simple and would help keep her legs warm if the weather got cooler for it was turning into mid-autumn now.

Stripping out of her pajamas, Akane noted that P-Chan was once again starring at her wall with his back to her. That was how P-Chan was every morning when he _was_ there and it made him seem more…human to Akane, something she took some sort of odd comfort in.

"I'm ready," she announced, quickly combing through her hair.

P-Chan turned to Akane and readily leapt into her open arms while she was setting down the comb.

"Oh!" Akane laughed, catching the piglet. "Yes, yes, we're going to go eat."

Exiting her room, Akane almost ran into the old pervert, Happosi, but thankfully she had _just_ missed him. She was gratefully to have missed the old lecher because she still had, for what reasons she preferred not to know, he still had a fetish for stealing _her_ 'granny underwear' as Ranma had so kindly put it once.

"He's happy about something," commented Akane, dryly as she heard the victory cheer of the old man.

"Stupid leech!" Ranma-_Chan_'s voice rang through the house, soon followed by Ranma's shirt and boxer wearing form running down the hall. Right past Akane, nearly knocking into her and P-Chan.

"Hey!" Akane shouted after almost being trampled by her 'loving' fiancée. "You'd think he would know better than to run through the house by now."

"Squee!" agreed P-Chan, glaring down the way Ranma had gone.

* * *

Breakfast was normal for the most part; argument between Ranma and Akane over some trivial thing or other, and of course, Genma and Ranma's food fight. When had that become the norm in the Tendo household? When had it gone from quiet, mundane talks to heated arguments and food fights over a simple meal?

Akane sighed as she examined her life the past few years, something she had been doing a lot with all her free time, and she had a lot of it too. To make matters worse, it was Sunday, the worst day of the week for the mere fact that there was almost nothing to keep Akane from being bored! Boredom was not an everyday occurrence in Nerima, more of a rarity since the Saotome's came, but somehow Akane still managed to become bored.

This boredom phase had not come about until a couple of months after school had ended and after Akane found herself being rejected from the colleges of her dreams. Sure there was Ranma, he always kept things interesting with his many _cute_ fiancées and people trying to kill him for one reason or another, and then there was Kuno, who still insisted on pursuing Akane and 'the pig-tailed girl' despite consistent protests. The man could not take a hint!

Beside the resident Nerima crazies that loved Ranma in one form or another, Akane dedicated more time to her martial arts. However, she found herself finding it more and more useless since Ranma did _all_ the fighting and she could count on him to rescue her all the time. Despite the fact that Akane knew she should not become dependent upon Ranma's rescues she couldn't help it. When was the last time Ranma had lost a fight?

Next to her personal martial arts training, Akane also sparred-if anyone could call it sparring-with Ranma. That was another area that frustrated Akane to no ends! As much as Akane respected Ranma for being a gentleman and not hitting a girl, she also was very irritated by it because there she would be giving it her all and Ranma would dodge all her attacks easily. Not once would he bother to fight back by throwing a punch, whether it was real or one that would miss her by a mile, or a kick. The boy was so maddening!

That could have been why Akane found herself in the lovely ice cream shop reading _Romeo and Juliet_ for the hundredth time that year. Unfortunately, reading the play caused Akane's thoughts to be taken to the-as she dubbed it-'Taped Kiss Incident' from her school's own rendition of the classic play.

Now that Akane's thoughts _were_ on her memories of the 'incident' she couldn't help but wonder, _What would have happened had I _not_ taped Ranma's mouth? I mean of course we would've kissed and all, but would it have changed anything between us now?_

"Hey Akane."

_No, nothing would have changed. I would have denied that the kiss had meant anything the second after Ranma declared that it was just a play and he felt nothing about it,_ Akane decided, not hearing anyone calling out her name as she stared blankly at her book.

"Hey Akane," Ranma-chan's voice sounded, snapping Akane from her thoughts; "I've been looking for ya for almost an hour now. You coulda told Kasumi where you going at the very least."

"Why were you looking for me?" Akane questioned, pretending to be deeply engrossed in the book rather than with her-_forced_-fiancée who sat across from her.

Hating to be ignored, especially when he was trying to give a message, Ranma did the one thing he could think of to get Akane's attention away from that book. He plucked the book from her hands and hid it behind his back.

"Hey!" Akane cried as she lung across the table, trying vainly to snatch the book from Ranma. Not succeeding in the retrieval of her book Akane readied her fist to send Ranma on a one way flight away from her and into whatever water mass there may be.

"Cool it Akane!" he exclaimed, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm just trying to tell you that you got some sort of package from…"

Before Ranma could even finish his sentence he was glomped by none other than the bimbo-ish Amazon, Shampoo. Not wishing to get jealous, Akane clenched her teeth together and clutched her skirt.

_Stay calm, don't let her get to you…_ chanted Akane as she took in deep breathes.

"Ranma, Shampoo thought she saw you here," the Amazon exclaimed giving Ranma a tight squeeze.

"That's nice, really but I…" Ranma began.

"Ranma, what about the package?" interrupted Akane, trying to take her mind off the matter at hand.

As though recalling Akane's presence, Ranma turned to her and tried to remember exactly what Kasumi's message to Akane was. "Oh yeah," he remembered, "you got some package from some Shihiro person in the United States…"

Akane didn't need to hear anymore, and she no longer cared about the fact that Shampoo had latched herself to Ranma once again. All Akane needed to know was what was in that package.

"Hey!" Ranma shouted after Akane but she did not reply to him.

"Ranma no run! Ranma go on date with Shampoo today, yes," declared Shampoo.

"H…hey now…"

Akane had to get to that package before Nabiki could get her hands on it for that package was special since it was from Shihiro. Shihiro was not a friend from the states but something more; not a fiancée but the Tendo girls' uncle. For Shihiro Kusankagi's the younger brother of Mrs. Tendo and he owned his own dojo in the United States. So with the limited income, receiving packages from Uncle Shihiro were rare but special to the girls.

Entering the house, Akane quickly shook off her shoes and raced to the kitchen to find Kasumi searching the cabinets for some seasoning or other.

"Kasumi," Akane gasped breathlessly, she had sprinted the whole way home, "did a package come for me?"

"It's in your room and it must be important since Uncle left a note on it to tell Nabiki to not lay a finger on it," Kasumi answered absently.

"Oh?" This surprised Akane since her Uncle enjoyed hearing the girls tell him how Nabiki made them pay either for the package or for the contents. So for him to place a 'DO NOT TOUCH' note on it was rather odd.

"Why don't you go see what it is," suggested Kasumi with her gentle smile.

With a numb nod, Akane ran up to her room and closed the door quietly behind her. There, on her bed, was _the package_, still intact and covered in scotch tape all around with no way for anyone to open it without leaving evidence of having done so.

Sitting down on her bed, Akane grabbed the package and gave it a gentle shake. Something jiggled inside of it, something solid and most certainly not made of glass or plaster. So it was not breakable.

Looking about her room for something sharp to cut open the package, Akane set the box down and scanned the room for that object. She found it on her desk, a letter opener, most likely left there due to Kasumi's great thinking.

Getting up, Akane retrieved the knife-like object, then returned to her bed, and began to tear the tape apart. Pulling back the flaps, Akane took a deep breath, under normal circumstances she would not be so nervous about seeing the surprise inside but these were not normal circumstances.

_Here goes nothing;_ she smiled taking a look at what was inside the box.

Inside were a VHS tape, a brochure, and a letter, so it kind of made the whole 'surprise' anticlimactic for Akane. _I was getting nervous over such a small thing!_ she berated herself as she picked up the letter. _What has he to say for himself?_

Reading through the letter Akane was left slightly confused, so she read it again and this time she dropped the letter with wide eyes. _He didn't! Why would he…?_ her mind questioned but her mouth said nothing, yet.

"Kasumi!!!"


	2. The Offer

**Without You**

****

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

"Kasumi!!!"

The yell caused the eldest Tendo sister to come to Akane's room as soon as she could, wearing a concerned expression on her face. It wasn't everyday that Akane yelled for Kasumi's assistance after all, it normally consisted of 'Ranma, you pervert!' or 'Ranma, you jerk, get out of my room!'.

"What is it Akane?" Kasumi inquired, letting her worry lace her tone.

"Read this and tell me what he _means_," Akane requested, handing the letter to her sister and beginning to pace about the room.

Taking the letter, Kasumi silently red over the sheet of paper slowly, taking her time to understand her Uncle's words. At the end of the letter she looked up at Akane with that sincerely happy smile but mixed with amazed eyes.

"Well?" Akane encouraged, eager to have a second understanding of the letter.

"He applied you to a college in the United States, wasn't that nice of him?" stated Kasumi with that pleasant smile of hers.

For a long while Akane gapped with the words 'you', 'college', and 'United States' echoing in her head. _He applied me to college in the __United States__!_ Akane realized suddenly.

"Akane, aren't you happy?" her older sister asked as she handed back the letter.

The younger Tendo was quiet for a few more seconds before her features broke into a full fledged smile. Abruptly Akane flung herself at Kasumi and hugged her while trying to remember to breath.

"Oh my God," exclaimed Akane, hugging her sister, "I can go to _college_! _I_, _me_, can go to college and in _America_ at that! Not even Nabiki pulled that off!"

"I am glad for you Akane," smiled Kasumi, returning the hug, "but do not gloat to Nabiki about it yet," she cautioned, causing her sister to pull away a bit and pout. "At least not until you are _accepted_!"

Both girls broke out into hysterics and began to jump, or at least Akane began to jump while Kasumi just made the little up and down movements. The girls were so excited and were not going to hold back for anything.

They did this happy-excitement hop for a good few minutes before Akane hugged her sister again and laughed into Kasumi's shoulder. She couldn't believe it, after all her failures in Japan there was a chance that she could be going to the United States for college.

"Wait a minute," Akane paused in her excitement, pulling back from Kasumi for a moment. "What about the second part? What was that about?"

"Oh, that was Uncle Shihiro offering to train you for a couple of years or while you're going to college. That is so generous of him to give you this chance to take you under his wing, so to speak," Kasumi told Akane.

For the second time that day, Akane found that she couldn't breath.

"Training…with Uncle Shihiro?" she breathed for a moment but her features broke into a smile. "Ahhhhhh!!!" The jumping and hugging started again, but this time with Akane screaming her excitement.

"I have the chance to train with Uncle Shihiro! To actually really train! To actually take my martial arts to the next level and perhaps even beyond!" she cried, completely in hysterics. "I can't believe this, someone pinch me!"

As requested, Kasumi pinched Akane's shoulder and the younger sister gave a yelp of pain.

"What was that for?" she demanded.

"You said 'someone pinch me'," answered Kasumi, laughing at her younger sister's display. "Oh my, I am so proud of you Akane, but are you really going to go?"

Any rejoicing Akane had been doing came to an abrupt halt. That was the _real_ question, wasn't it? Was she going to go?

_What would I be leaving behind?_ Akane questioned, her shoulders dropping a little. _My family, friends, the crazies of Nerima, all the _cute_ fiancées…_

"I don't know," she finally answered. "I mean if I got accepted then of course but if not then I'm not sure. The opportunity to train with Uncle Shihiro is very tempting but I'm not quite sure if that's what I really want."

Kasumi shrugged a bit, "Well, maybe you should watch the video tape first, it may explain things more clearly than that letter of his."

In the excitement of the prospect of college, Akane had completely forgotten about the tape sitting in the box waiting to be viewed.

_Surely it must contain something,_ she decided. "Okay. You're right, the tape first and decisions later."

The eldest Tendo smiled gently and pulled her sister into another embrace, but this time more calmly than their previous ones.

"I am so happy for you Akane, if mother were alive she would be so proud of you," Kasumi whispered into Akane's ear.

"Thank you," Akane mumbled, almost inaudibly as she pulled away from the hug, wiping the tears from her eyes. Tears of joy but tears none the less, awful things that messed up everything and just told people that something happened.

"I-is Nabiki home?" Akane inquired, Nabiki was the _only_ Tendo with both a T.V. and VCR in her room; they were 'necessary' for her advertisement classes in college. Akane suspected it was a bunch of cleverly worded lies though.

"Yes, she is but I'm certain that she will let you use her VCR to view your tape. Now, I have to finish lunch, it will be done shortly so don't be late," Kasumi informed Akane before leaving the room.

"Well, not time like the present to bargain with Nabiki," sighed the martial artist, clicking her tongue a bit.

* * *

Above Akane's window, Ranma sat deep in thought as he contemplated the late morning events. He had not heard a word that had passed in the room below him, since he had just sat down. Still, Akane's reactions to that Shihiro-guy's name was enough to make Ranma wonder about him.

Who was this guy? What was his connection to Akane? A fiancée?

_Probably,_ snorted Ranma, _it would be about time that _she _had to put up with multiple fiancées!_

Although on the outside Ranma was chuckling at the idea of Akane having another fiancée, he was overwhelmed with worry on the inside.

_What if this guy was coming here and what if Akane truly likes him?_ Ranma's brain began questioning. For some reason the prospect of Akane liking someone else, especially some guy Ranma had never met, frightened Ranma, but that was crazy! Wasn't it?

_What am I thinking?!_ laughed Ranma, shaking his head to knock out the insane ideas. _What poor jerk could ever like that tomboy?_

Still, with Akane's reaction to the name 'Shihiro' still fresh in his mind, not to mention the mystery package, Ranma couldn't help but suspect that _maybe_ Akane _had_ met and was in love with this guy.

_I could always ask her about him…_ Ranma thought but dismissed the thought right away. Asking questions about this mystery person could possibly make Akane think that he was interested in her affairs, which he wasn't! …Well, not all the time…Okay, so he _was_ interested, but just a bit.

_Okay,_ he prepped, _just act casually…_

Flipping himself into his uncute fiancée's room, via the window-one would have thought that Akane would have learned to keep it closed by now. To Ranma's astonishment he found the room empty but, presently, he found that the package was lying open on the bed for any prying eyes to see.

Sliding towards the package, Ranma kept his eyes on anything that was _not_ the package on the bed.

_Ah, what she dun know won't kill her, or me for that matter,_ Ranma decided with a wave of his hand.

With that resolution in mind, Ranma peeked into the box only to find nothing in there that he had imagined being in it; there was only a tape and a brochure written in English-a language Ranma had not comprehended in high school or at that moment.

"Phew!" he sighed in relief. "And here I thought it would be some kind of idiotic-romantic gift from her _boyfriend_." It wasn't as though he was jealous or anything, Akane could have a boyfriend thousands of miles away and Ranma couldn't care less, seriously.

While glancing through the brochure Ranma heard footsteps outside the door. Glancing around the room for an escape, Ranma began to panic until his brain supplied, _The window!_

Tossing the pamphlet into the box, Ranma dashed out the window and back up onto the roof, his safety area.

Opening her door, Akane went straight to her window. "Ranma?" she called out, poking her head out of the window.

A meek 'yeah' was barely heard from above.

Uncertain if she was going to be heard from her window, Akane got onto the window sill and once situated she pulled herself onto the roof. There she found the man of the moment sitting with his legs crossed and face resting on his palm.

"Hey," she spoke up, "lunch is ready."

"Did you make it?" The words flew from Ranma's mouth before he could stop them.

Ranma could feel the ki rise from Akane, that furious blue aura that warned any person within a radius of three miles that Akane was upset and about to mallet someone to Mars.

"H-hey, I was just joking," Ranma defended lamely, "you know, kidding!"

Akane may have visibly calmed but her flared ki had not died down. "If you must know, Kasumi did all of the cook as usual. So, it's edible for you to eat whenever you're ready to join us downstairs."

With that retort, Akane was ready to make her exit, except she had completely forgotten that she was on the roof. That one step to the 'exit' put Akane on the ledge of the roof, causing her to become unbalanced.

"Whoa…whoa! Ranma…!"

Ranma quickly got to his feet and was at Akane's side, steadying her with his hand gripping her arm. Akane let out a sigh of relief and was ready to thank Ranma until he opened his big mouth.

"Stupid tomboy, can't you do anything without needing me to rescue you?" commented Ranma and that sent Akane back to her anger state of mind.

"You jerk!" Akane growled.

"H-hey now Akane, at least let me put you on the ground before you mallet me," implored Ranma knowing that he had signed his mallet warrant again. One would have thought that over the last few years Akane would have given up the weapon, but it had remained by her side ready for use.

"Then get me down," she snapped, obviously not going to calm down until she had hit Ranma into outer space.

With a resigned sigh, Ranma picked up his fiancée and jumped off the roof to the ground. Once on the ground Akane jumped out of the Ranma's arms and malleted her fiancée into the air.

"Jerk."


	3. Decisions

**Without You**

****

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

Ranma landed not far from the Tendo Dojo, which had only meant one of three things. One, it was his lucky day no matter how unlucky he felt. Two, gravity decided to kick in earlier than normal. Or three, Akane just hadn't hit him with the same force as she normally did, which also meant that she was not as angry as she let on. Whatever the reason, Ranma was just happy to be back at the dojo and in his place eating in a matter for minutes.

The moment he took his place beside Akane, Ranma began wolfing down his food while remaining a bit bitter toward Akane. Hey, he _had_ saved her from falling! Where in the definition of 'saving' did it include 'must be hit with the over-grown mallet'?!

Ranma sat there too bitter to notice that Akane's normally flared ki had evaporated into nothingness. Now she sat there picking at her food more or less as she watched her family eat.

_If I were to go, would I be willing to give this up for four years in a strange country?_ she wondered picking at her rice.

Glancing at Nabiki, Akane thought, _She would be fine and busy with college. Besides, she could always sell pictures of Ranma-_chan_ for money if she ever gets close to being broke._ The thought caused Akane to smile a bit only because she knew that Ranma hated those pictures that Nabiki continued to take of his girl form.

"Akane, are you well?" Kasumi inquired with concern slightly tinting her voice.

Snapping away from her thoughts Akane returned her sister's stare but only found Kasumi watching Akane's chop sticks poke at the rice bowl. "Uh y-yeah," Akane assured lamely as she took a small bite of her food.

The older Tendo sister seemed to have been satisfied so Akane continued her train of thought.

_Kasumi would be alright without me around. Although she may have to cook for one less but she should be alright for the most part, _Akane smiled then her eyes shifted toward her dad.

Her dad was completely oblivious to Akane's observance of everyone else as he ate quietly and had a little bicker with Mr. Saotome.

_Dad…oh daddy would never go for it since I would be continents away from Ranma and still unmarried,_ assumed Akane glancing at Genma. _Mr. Saotome wouldn't handle it well either. They would both start planning our next disastrous wedding and either way I would still end up going to the __United States__ unmarried._

Shaking her head a bit at the thought, Akane ate some more of her food.

_What about Ranma? Would he miss me at all?_ she wondered, sneaking a glance at her fiancée.

Noticing Akane's eye on him, Ranma snapped, "What?"

_Perhaps not,_ Akane concluded, accidentally sighing aloud.

"What? No _brilliant_ come backs today?" Ranma teased but then he noticed Akane's thoughtful expression as she concentrated on her food. "What, cat got your tongue today Akane? You've been quiet."

The entire family turned to the youngest Tendo with eager expressions as they waited for an explanation from her.

Taking notice of all the eyes that were upon her, Akane stopped eating and stared back at everyone else. "Uh? I'm just thinking," she explained, returning to picking at her food again Akane could tell that her family wasn't buying her pathetic reason, even though it was the truth.

"You know what, I don't feel well. I think I'm going to go lay down," Akane stated as she got up and left her family to retreat to her room.

"What is her problem?" Ranma asked as Kasumi returned to eating quietly.

"Ranma," Soun began and the young man could feel another lecture coming on, "since you are her fiancée it is your duty to find out what is making Akane so upset and to set it right."

"Why do I gotta?!" protested Ranma ready for his normal arguments of how he didn't even want to be engaged. _When did that become normal?_

Thankfully, Nabiki saved Ranma the trouble of having to repeat his reasons. "I'll talk to her after lunch, I think I may have an idea of what's bothering her," Nabiki volunteered finishing off her meal.

Almost everyone at the table stared at Nabiki in shock, except for Kasumi who simply said, "That's a good idea Nabiki and so sweet of you."

Ranma on the other hand wasn't buying into Nabiki's 'sisterly love' for a moment. "What exactly are you hoping to gain out of this one?" he questioned, suspicion dripping in his voice as he leaned over the table a bit.

Nabiki returned the look with one of innocence and disbelief. "Why Ranma, I can't believe you would think so lowly of me after all of these years that we've known each other. I am only going to talk to Akane, sister to sister, I have no 'gain' in it," she lied. The only gain that Nabiki had was to gain information to sell to Ranma later.

Even after all these years he still was willing to pay for information when he needed it most.

"Yeah right," Ranma snorted but he let the subject drop anyway, watching Nabiki leave the table for her baby sister's room. _I'll just have to ask Akane about it later._

* * *

_Would it be _that_ bad if I left? Not really, so I should at least give it a go. If I get into college great, but if I don't then I can at least train a couple of years with Uncle Shihiro. So yes, yes I shall go,_ Akane decided as she sat at her desk, pulling out a piece of paper.

'Dear Uncle Shihiro' was all Akane had written down before there was a knock on her door.

"Enter," Akane said absently, hiding the started letter, the one her Uncle wrote, and brochure under some books.

Nabiki entered the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

"Okay, spill. What is wrong with you?" she demanded.

The younger Tendo stood starring blankly at the floor as she debated about telling Nabiki. _Should I tell her? Uncle Shihiro didn't want her knowing the contents of the package and would it really do to tell her something that I'm not certain of?_ questioned Akane, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"Well?" urged Nabiki. "You aren't still upset over that last rejection, are you?" Her baby sister cringed at the mention of the rejection. "Aw, come on Akane, you were never one to give up in the past so why get discouraged now?"

Still, Akane remained silent since she hadn't heard much of what her older sister was saying because her mind was still debating.

"Nabiki," she finally spoke, "may I use your T.V. and VCR?"

The advertisement student raised an eyebrow at her baby sister. Rarely, _rarely_, if ever did Akane ask to use the T.V. and VCR, usually it wasn't for lightly reasons either. It had to be something important because Nabiki would sometimes need to use it to record interesting commercials for a project or some exercise for her class.

"Sure, but that will be ten thousand yen for each," shrugged Nabiki, withholding the smirk that wanted to creep onto her face.

Akane rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "You _know_ that I have no money Nabiki," Akane pointed out. Her allowance was spent more and more on simple things like ice cream, especially on days when she was really depressed, like earlier that day.

"Well then no," smiled Nabiki even though she knew that her sister's next tactic would be a negotiation.

Sighing, Akane gave in. "Fine, how about I model for your next project and for extra photos to sell to the college boys and Kuno?" offered Akane. It was amazing how even the small trivial things, such as pictures of Akane, still drove boys to buy the pictures.

Nabiki was about to readily except but Akane felt the need to add, "But I still refuse to pose in the nude."

In the past Nabiki had always been good at allowing Akane privacy and not snapping photos of her in the nude, but since the older Tendo had entered college she had been trying numerous strategies to get Akane to pose in the buff. The younger sibling wasn't too thrilled about the idea and refused the offer all the time.

"Mmh, well if you put it like that then I guess we can just do ten shots and you've got a deal," agreed Nabiki with a disappointing sigh.

"Thank you, may I use it now?"

"Sure, I'll go get my camera and set up outside. Come down when you're done with your viewing," smiled Nabiki, leaving the room.

Once her sister was gone, Akane pulled the tape from the box and quickly went into Nabiki's room to watch it.

Going into Nabiki's room felt odd for Akane but she knelt in front of the T.V. and turned it on. Setting everything up so that she could watch the VHS, Akane popped it into the VCR and sat back.

The word 'PLAY' flashed on the blue screen only to be replaced by a snowy black screen. Suddenly that was changed to the image of a late thirties man with dark brown hair sitting on a chair, rolling up his sleeves.

"Is it on?" he asked in English to the person recording.

"Yeah," came a female's voice.

_Aunt Lorain?_ Akane wondered, it had been a good ten years since she last heard her Aunt's voice.

"Okay." Uncle Shihiro cleared his throat and shifted on the stool. "Akane my dear, by now you've probably read my letter and you may have some questions. Well, I can't promise to answer all of them but I hope this recording will answer most of them."

His Japanese was a bit hesitant but still very well kept considering that he only spoke Japanese with his family.

"So, without further adieu, I shall explain all of this to you…"


	4. The Video

**Without You**

****

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

"First, allow me to explain the university to you," Uncle Shihiro began.

"Please do," nodded Akane, leaning back against Nabiki's bed.

Uncle Shihiro shifted his position on the stool for a moment as he ran a hand through his hair. "Well, it's called the ----'s University of the _All_ the Arts, which literally means _all_ the arts. This school teaches musical, theater arts-if you are interested, literature arts, and-amazingly enough-martial arts."

"Wow," Akane muttered in amazement with her mouth gapping open.

"I kind of thought you would be interested in the whole martial arts aspect as your major, or even your minor if you wanted," Uncle Shihiro continued on, scratching the back of his head. He seemed as though he was trying to remember something written out for him while adding his own little comments, still the information was music to Akane's ears.

"That's great!" she smiled, very pleased that her uncle _had_ applied her, even without her permission. "But why did he and how am I to pay for such a school?" Akane immediately began to wonder.

It was a fairly well known fact that the Tendo family didn't make much money to start with but ever since the Saotome's had taken up residence with them that there had been even less money. Plus, their money was now going to their insurance since their rates had skyrocketed because of the constant strings of Ranma's rivals destroying the place.

"As for payment," Shihiro spoke up as though the video image of Akane's uncle had just read her mind. "Payment will be provided by me and Lorain."

"What?!" Akane shouted but then she realized that everyone else in the house had probably heard it. Quickly she covered her mouth and repeated her question, this time softly. "What?"

"Excuse me?" came Aunt Lorain's voice from behind the camera. "Uh-huh, that is not how it goes…Kamui, take the camera." There was a lot of jiggling of the image as the camera switched holders. "Got it?"

"I've got it mom," assured Kaumi, straightening the camera.

Kamui was Akane's half-American, half-Japanese cousin and he was about Nabiki's age, perhaps slightly older. Then there was the younger cousin, Matsu, who had to be only about ten or eleven years old by now.

_I wonder what they look like now,_ Akane thought since the last time she saw her baby cousin was when he was a baby.

On the T.V. screen, Akane watched as her American aunt joined her uncle's side. Her aunt was a rather young woman and one would not have thought that she would be the mother of a nineteen or twenty year old for she appeared to be either thirty-nine or forty years of age. Aunt Lorain was a fiery redhead with an Irish lineage and grass green eyes that should have belonged to the Lucky Charms Leprechaun.

"Akane honey," the woman's Japanese was off and a bit broken.

_At least hers is better maintained and more easily understood than Shampoo's,_ commented Akane, not even repressing the smile that appeared on her features.

Once again, Akane's attention returned to the T.V. to listen to what her aunt had to say. "_I_ will be paying for your expenses while you live with us," Lorain stated while her husband sat on the stool looking off to the side in that 'I had nothing to do with this' expression on his face.

"What?!" Akane shouted once more and this time Kasumi knocked on the door, causing Akane to pause the video.

"Akane is everything alright in there?" came the eldest Tendo's soft, concerned voice from the other side of the door.

"Everything's fine Kasumi, I'm fine, there's nothing wrong here," assured the younger sibling. _At least there was nothing wrong until Aunt Lorain just told me that she plans to pay for my college fees._

"Okay," Kasumi said, "just let me know if you need anything."

The Tendo youngest daughter smiled at her sister's ability to openly offer any form of help when asked for. "I will," promised Akane and she waited to hear her sister's footsteps go down the stairs before continuing the video.

The play triangle appeared on the screen once again and the frozen picture came to life as well.

"I know this may come as a shock but I have money invested and my in heritance to use," Aunt Lorain proceeded to explain in that gentle voice of hers. One could almost have said that she was a blood relation of Kasumi's with her ability to calm almost anyone and make stressing things sound more carefree.

"Buy why use it on me?" wondered the niece softly. "Why not on Kamui or Matsu, why me?" The question was really nagging at her now because she was just their niece and the boys were their children, so why were her aunt and uncle so eager to help her?

"Don't you worry about our boys, Akane. Kamui is currently paying his way through with the inheritance given to him by my father, isn't that right Kamui?" assured Aunt Lorain as she tilted up her chin to look at her son over the camera.

Kamui did answer his mother, "Yeah, so don't worry about it too much coz. My mom has this all figured out, trust her judgment." His voice was rather deep but it held his mother's cheerful disposition to it and it just made Akane smile slightly to herself.

_What choice do I have but to trust them?_ Akane questioned, sighing in defeat as she hung her head a bit.

"Okay, now your Uncle will tell you about the training he plans to put you through," Lorain told her niece through the video camera. She stepped out of the picture, leaving Akane's exasperated Uncle Shihiro sitting on the stool with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, so _now_ it's _my_ turn to talk, is it? Are you sure you don't want to interrupt me again?" Uncle Shihiro inquired with a bit of bitterness in his tone.

"Shihiro-," warned Aunt Lorain from behind the camera.

_Wow,_ Akane thought with a ghost of smile crossing her lips, _that almost sounds like Ranma and I. Almost anyways. _There a noticeable hint of amusement in her voice thoughts.

"Alright, Akane, as you read, I want to train you for a couple of years. In your letters over the past couple of years you have often expressed an observation in your training level and habits. Due to Ranma's appearance, apparently, you have become lax in your work outs and find yourself not improving much or not at all," Shihiro explained as a father about to give her a priority lecture.

Akane let out a groan as she shook her head ruefully, "Here it comes."

"Also, you have mentioned on numerous occasions over the years of your frustrations in Ranma's lack of sparring," mentioned her uncle, catching Akane off guard but gaining her full attention again nonetheless.

The older man on the screen cleared his throat again.

"Sorry, I have a tickle in my throat," he told her, rubbing his throat a bit. "So, since you do not seem to be getting the training experience that you want and/or need, I want to take you under my wing, so to speak."

There was a pause which Akane supposed happened because her uncle had assumed she would need a few seconds to recover from any shock that she might have felt, which was none at the moment.

"You would be training with, but not limited to, me, Kamui, and Matsu. Yes, my youngest boy does practice the Anything Goes style and he is quite good at it. So, if anything I figure it would beneficial to both of you to improve and get experience with changing your styles should you need to," continued Uncle Shihiro but Akane only half listened to the last sentence.

"Matsu is training?" Akane wondered aloud in disbelief. "He can't be more than ten or eleven years ol…well, then I suppose he would be training. I had started about the age of four so he ought to be pretty good if that's when he had started at that age too."

Figuring all that out, Akane returned her complete attention to what else her uncle had to tell her about her training.

"Of course, you would be training with my other students at the dojo three times a week." A lopsided grin crossed Shihiro's features which made him seem a bit younger than what he was. "I have two students who I would like you to meet, should you come to stay with us that is."

_Of course I'm coming,_ the young Tendo's thoughts shouted excitedly. Just watching the video was making her want to go to the States even more, even if it was just to train with her relations.

"Oh," came Kamui's voice, snapping Akane from her thoughts. "You're going to have her spar with them?"

"Sh-sh!" directed Shihiro, putting a finger to his lips for silence.

"'Them'? Who are these students and what makes them so special?" Akane questioned in intrigue and suspicion. Students from her uncle's dojo who were obviously under her Uncle Shihiro's highest respect intrigued Akane, she wanted to meet these students and she wanted to spar with them.

"I cannot promise you that you'll be as strong, fast, and powerful as Ranma or his fiancées but I can promise improvement in your art," vowed Uncle Shihiro.

_At least he's being honest and not making any promises that he can't keep,_ smiled Akane. She had her own experience a couple of times in the past when someone had promised to make her smarter or understand something better or even control her temper better, but it had been empty promises because she still had problems with her temper, she wasn't smarter, and her understanding of most things were limited.

"Um, honey, the battery's running low," Aunt Lorain announced, causing Uncle Shihiro to look off to the side for a moment.

"Fine, okay then…um..." he coughed a bit in a way that meant he didn't know what else to say. "Mail us a reply, by express if you can…oh, and record an interview of yourself in English, as soon as possible. The university wants to know how good your English understanding is. The questions are on the back of my letter so just answer those and…be yourself," advised Shihiro. "Love you sweetie."

The image remained on Uncle Shihiro for a few more seconds as Kamui and Aunt Lorain's whispered voices could be heard in the background. Suddenly, the image turned back into a snowy black screen, announcing the end of the recording.

"Wow," was all Akane had to say. "That still doesn't tell me how they knew about my rejections from colleges. I just sent them my letter two weeks ago and it normally takes a few months before they receive it. So, how did they…?"

There was a sudden knock on the door, making Akane jump a little bit.

"Akane, are you done with that video yet?" came Nabiki's voice on the other side of the door.

Rolling her eyes and letting out a small groan, Akane turned off the T.V. and got up to go to the door.

"Yes, I'm done," she replied, turning around and ejecting the tape before she forgot it. _No good to let Nabiki get her hands on it and use this to get more money from Ranma or someone else._

Hiding the tape behind her back, Akane opened the door to find Nabiki with her hand raised to knock on the door again.

"About time sis," grinned Nabiki, eyeing the hand that was hidden behind Akane's back.

"Let's go model," sighed Akane, she hated to do this so much that she just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.


	5. Excuses

**Without You**

****

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

**Okay, school has started this week for me so now I'm back to updating only on the weekends when I can. So my updations will not always be weekly. I'm planning to do this one every other weekend. Just letting you guys know so you know when to look forward to the next chapter. Do not ask me to update sooner because I do have other stories I need to work on and I have marching band, so I'm fairly busy. Thank you for your cooperation.**

Akane hated to model for Nabiki for anything, school or those photos that she sold. At least the modeling session was over with, gratefully, and Akane was able to keep her sister from discovering what was on the tape and what Uncle Shihiro had sent her.

"Thanks for the shots Akane, they'll be most useful," Nabiki smiled, holding up the camera that was stocked with photos of Akane and, Akane was certain, Ranma-chan.

"Uh-huh," nodded Akane from her room as she changed out of the outfit Nabiki had her model in for a few photos. Pulling on her skirt than her shirt, Akane folded up the borrowed clothes and exited the room, handing the clothes to her sister. "By the way, I need another favor of you."

By the time the word 'favor' was out of Akane's mouth Nabiki's eyes were glittering with possibilities, possibilities that would make her money while offering her sisterly services to her baby sister. Having noticed the look in Nabiki's eyes, Akane closed her eyes and rolled them under the eyelids.

_Can't teach an old dog new tricks,_ she commented mentally. "I need to borrow your video camera and I need you to teach me how to use it…"

"Well, I could always record you if you need someone who can work the camera," shrugged Nabiki, she was really trying to find out what it was that Akane wanted to record. "Just to be sure that it works properly," she quickly added when Akane gave her a skeptical look.

With a defeated sigh, Akane shook her head a bit. "Never mind, forget I asked, I'll just ask Kusumi to use the old camcorder," Akane stated, brushing past Nabiki.

Oh no, there was no way that her baby sister was just going to brush her aside like that. No, this was an opportunity that Nabiki could not afford to miss out on, no matter how she had to get the information.

"Akane, you can use my camera, I was just offering my services should you think that you needed them, but if you don't then I can just show you how to use it and you can borrow it," Nabiki told her, acting nonchalance about it while praying that her baby sister was buying the performance.

The younger Tendo eyed her sister a bit, looking for any tell-tale signs of deception. _This is Nabiki,_ Akane reminded herself, _she would never let on to anything if she was plotting someway to get information out of me. I just need to try and keep my plans of going the __United States__ a secret until I know for certain if I can go and if I got accepted to the university._

"I think I can handle your camera without breaking it Nabiki," Akane assured with a stern voice that was meant to warn her sister from pursuing the idea of helping making the interview tape.

Knowing when she won't get her way no matter how much she tried, Nabiki agreed. "Okay than, but you owe me a favor when _I_ need a favor," she reminded her baby sister. One never knew when one needed to call upon assistance every once and a while, so Nabiki was using this as an excuse to prepare for this 'time', should it ever come.

Akane was reluctant to agree, she was going to be on her sister's terms as far as what the favor was going to be, but Akane needed to get that tape done. In the end, Akane's need to get her interview taped won over her dislike of her sister's terms.

"Fine."

Hiding a grin of triumph, Nabiki inquired, "Would you like to use it now or after supper?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Akane figured that it was almost dinner time and Kasumi was certain to be calling them downstairs shortly. "How about afterwards," Akane decided, so that after dinner she could use the dojo since that was possibly the place Ranma was occupying.

"I'll have it out for you, but remember that you owe me now," Nabiki reminded.

Almost without warning, Akane pounced upon her sister, hugging her tightly. Leaving Nabiki with no idea how to respond to this; reacting to more emotional situations had never been one of Nabiki's strong points, especially when her sister was squeezing her a bit too tightly.

"Uh…Akane," Nabiki coughed, only receiving a 'mmh?' from her baby sister, "loosen up a bit."

Without letting go of Nabiki, Akane loosened her hold of the older Tendo sister.

"Sorry but thank you so much for all your help," Akane smiled gratefully then hugging her sister again, gently this time; completely forgetting her sister's inability to react to affection such as spontaneous kisses and hugs. It was a bit funny actually, at least to Akane because she couldn't quite figure out where she got that personality trait.

"Okay, okay Akane, you can let of me now," Nabiki pointed out, tapping Akane's shoulder while glancing down the hallway to make sure no one was witness to this moment. She could never let out this tender moment because that could ruin her reputation as the 'Ice Queen'; even in college she carried the name. It was amazing to her.

"Oh right," nodded the younger Tendo, letting go of Nabiki. "Sorry about that, I hope I didn't just ruin your reputation."

"It's alright, but don't let it happen again," warned Nabiki.

"I promise," Akane said absently before retreating back to her room with a giddy smile on her features, something that Nabiki hadn't seen for the longest time. In a way it was very refreshing.

Sitting at her desk, Akane once again took up her pen and began to finish her reply letter to her Uncle Shihiro. In all of the excitement Akane had made many mistakes; spelling, grammatically, and little half, unfinished sentences. The letter called for Akane to write another draft, a better one.

* * *

Ranma had been walking around Nermia after lunch, he had decided against going to the dojo to practice as he normally did, and instead opted to go for a walk. It was a dangerous thing to do, especially since it left him open for attacks and kidnappings from his 'other fiancée's'. But Ranma felt the need to do _something_ physical that didn't require him to spar against an invisible partner or to step through a kata, plus his old man had been too 'busy' playing GO to help him train (read: be beat into a pulp or be splashed with cold water to become a panda).

"Who chooses to play GO instead of training?" Ranma muttered, kicking at the invisible stone on the fence.

Maybe he should _purposely_-for once-stir up some havoc just to keep him entertained for the moment. Of course that would only land him into the usual sort of trouble or even more trouble than the norm.

Somehow Ranma felt like he got the short end of the stick when it came to his life. How was it that trouble of almost every sort followed him? Couldn't whatever higher power go pick on someone else? Or was Ranma the easiest because he had so many fiancée's, _all of which were not his choice_?!

Ranma sighed, stopping in his walk to sit down on the fence. It wasn't just how unfair his life was that coursed through his head as he sat there. Oh no, the whole mystery surrounding this Shihiro guy was still nagging at him.

"What kind of guy makes a tomboy like Akane suddenly get very excited that she would not get jealous of Shampoo hanging on me in front of her?" wondered Ranma thinking back to all the other times Shampoo had glumped him in front of Akane, she had always gotten very angry and would start steaming with jealousy-at least that was what Ranma thought it to be.

Resting his chin on his hand, Ranma continued to think aloud, "She hadn't mentioned him at lunch." _Neither did anyone else for that matter,_ he realized.

This was starting to aggravate Ranma and being aggravated was never something he handled well, and this Shihiro guy was just starting to push his buttons.

"Ha!" he laughed. "And I don't even know the guy!"

Of course Ranma had thought of doing the most common thing, ask Nabiki but of course she would ask for payment and Ranma was currently broke. He could ask Akane directly but…

_"Shihiro's my real fiancée. I'm sorry that I hadn't told you before but I didn't want to hurt you. I love Shihiro, Ranma, not you."_

Ugh! Even just thinking about Akane saying something like that caused Ranma's blood to race and his heart to beat rapidly.

"It would break Ryoga's heart," he reasoned for his 'uncharacteristic' concern for Akane's love life, whatever love life she had.

"After all," he continued, "it's not as thought it matters to me. If she loves this Shihiro guy then s-so what?! Why should I care?! It's not as thought she's really my fiancée or nut'ing since it wasn't my idea to get engaged to her!"

Glancing around him, Ranma made certain that his semi-stalker of a father wasn't around to have heard what he just said. No one, the streets were deserted except for that old lady up the street throwing water into the street again.

Ranma groaned, "Who am I kidding?"

"Who indeed, boy?"

At his father's sudden appearance on the fence, Ranma jumped up to his feet, ready in his casual-though a bit tense at the moment-stance but mentally ready should his pops try to pull a 'fast' one.

"W-what are you talking about pops?" Ranma demanded, playing the 'I have no idea what you're talking about' act.

Why couldn't he have a moment's peace? Especially without someone entering upon his business and making it their own?! Wasn't there a law against sticking one's nose into other people's business?

_If not, there should be,_ Ranma added bitterly.

"About you and Akane, boy," Genma answered with a solemn expression on his face as his eyes began to tear up. "I always knew you had wanted to try to make it work with her after that second failed marriage."

Fountains of tears that most people would deem impossible for a human to create, but that was only if a person's dad did not carry the names Soun Tendo or Genma Saotome. Well, Ranma was used to the fountains of tears.

Ranma wished he could drop dead, but he couldn't because life was still out to torture him. So, instead, he punched his father into the cold water below.

"I don't wanna marry no one!" Ranma declared as the panda surfaced. "Ya got that?!"


	6. Interview

**Without You**

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

**Okay, so the every other weekend thing didn't work out, but guess what! Marching band is done with so now I'm free on the weekends to work on fan fics until my heart's content or until Monday comes around. I'll be updating more often now and hopefully begin to make a routine update soon, at least until Christmas time.**

**Thank you for your patience. **

Dinner came and the Saotomes were still missing in action from the dojo.

Under most circumstances the Tendo family would have waited for their guests to return to the dojo before eating, but after years of living with the Saotome men the Tendos didn't bother with tradition. Instead, the Tendos began to eat the meal Kasumi presented for them.

Soun was the first to speak, "So Akane, what did your Uncle Shihiro send you? An early wedding present perhaps?" Soun added a wink at the end.

Akane looked up over her bowl of rice and glared at her father a bit. _They just can't drop it, can they? And what's this "early wedding" assumption? Hasn't anyone figured it out yet, Ranma and I will probably never marry,_ Akane sighed as she put her bowl down.

"No, he just sent me a video he thought I would be interested in watching," corrected Akane with a hint of annoyance in her tone. It wasn't a lie; Uncle Shihiro _did_ send her a tape that Akane had found interesting.

"Really," Nabiki piped up, she was obviously going to try to indirectly extract information from her baby sister. "What movie?"

Thinking quickly, Akane racked through her mind for a movie that Nabiki would not like to watch. The great thing about Nabiki was that she was picky when it came to the movies she watched. She liked current movies with romance, usually some moderate violence, it couldn't be a cutesy teen movie, and under no circumstance could it be a musical…

"He sent 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'," Akane shrugged and Nabiki's face fell for, a moment. It fell then returned to normal but this time with a bit of suspicion.

"How was the movie?" Soun inquired as though he was interested. In reality though, he didn't think highly of television or movies; no, GO and mah jong were what he preferred at his age.

'It was great," Akane smiled, turning her eyes to Nabiki, "very cute with all the songs that they sang and the dancing was very well done." Truth be told, Akane had never once seen the movie, she only knew that it was a fairly old movie with singing and dancing.

"What was very well done?" questioned Ranma's voice as the teen entered the room with his panda father in tow.

"A movie," Akane replied, not even going to bother asking what happened. There were just so many events that could have led Genma to being transformed into his panda form, and many of those events included either one or more of Ranma's _cute_ fiancées.

Sitting down beside Akane, Ranma quickly said grace then began to devour his food.

After a few minutes, Ranma stopped eating to ask, "What movie?"

"'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'," answered Akane sipping her drink.

"Is that an action movie or something?" Ranma inquired after picking through his brain to find out if he knew the movie.

"No," Akane sighed, "it is a romance-musical."

Ranma made a face. "I would never have thought that a tomboy like you would ever watch those kinds of movies," he commented absently, oblivious to the fact that he called his fiancée a "tomboy".

Elbowing striking her fiancée, Akane turned back to her food with an air of bitterness.

"What was that for?!" Ranma cried, but Akane refused to say anything, instead she sat there eating with her eyes closed.

"So Ranma," Nabiki spoke up from across the table, "where were you this afternoon?"

* * *

After dinner, as promised, Nabiki lent Akane her video camera and a tripod to put the camera on. Excited to get started, Akane sprinted to the only place she could think of appropriate and private enough to do her interview, the dojo.

Akane's high hopes were crashed as she entered the dojo to find Ranma performing a kata.

Not breaking his movements, Ranma asked, "You wanna spar or something, Akane?"

Placing the camera and tripod beside the doors, Akane shook her head. There was a foreboding feeling in Akane that this was going to take a while as she approached Ranma.

"No, but I'm wondering if you mind getting out of here?"

There was a momentary pause in Ranma's movement, but the teen tried to act nonchalance. "What do you need the dojo for? If you're planning to practice then you better forget it, because you shouldn't bother to practice when I'm the one who always has to bail you out. Besides, we can share…"

"It's not that," interrupted Akane, sharply, "I need to tape something and I need to be alone to do it." It was a pathetic excuse but the problem was that it was the truth, or at least as much of the truth that she was willing to tell.

"Why do you need to be alone?" Ranma demanded. _Is she taping something for that Shihiro guy?_ The martial artist could just picture it in his mind's eye, Akane telling the Shihiro that she was accepting his offer of…engagement…_Stop thinking that!_ Ranma commanded, shaking his head.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Akane began to explain her situation as though she was speaking to a seven year-old instead of an eighteen year-old. "I need to be alone so that nothing will happen to Nabiki's camera."

Ranma snorted, "With you, something is bound to happen to that thing, you'll end up dropping it or something."

Taking a deep breath and counting to ten, Akane gave her fiancée a cold glare. "Listen Ranma, you can go practice anywhere you want to but here, I _need_ the dojo and I need to be alone to make this tape," she half-hissed.

Sensing that if he didn't move quickly that the wonderfully dreadful mallet would suddenly appear from behind Akane's back. That was one thing Ranma didn't need at that moment, to be hit because, truth be told, it did hurt if Akane hit him in the right spot.

"Fine," Ranma scoffed, leaving the dojo for the qui pond.

With Ranma gone, Akane began setting up the camera on the tripod. Bending over the camera, Akane tried to figure out how to make the blasted device worked, but she was failing miserably.

"This thing is impossible!" Akane grunted in frustration. She had to mentally restrain herself from slamming the electronic device into the floor. "Stupid thing!"

"Akane?" Startled, Akane turned around thinking to find Nabiki there ready to scold her and then try to recover information about the package from their uncle. Instead it Kasumi who the voice belonged to.

With a sigh of relief, Akane shook her head before looking up to smile at her older sister.

"Hey Kasumi, did you need my help with something?" Akane offered, starting to stand up.

"No," Kasumi quickly assured her younger sister. Noticing the camera, Kasumi gave Akane a questioning look. "What are you doing with Nabiki's camera, Akane?"

Glancing at the camera for a second, Akane quickly decided to tell Kasumi the truth, after all, Kasumi already knew what was in the package. "I'm trying to make an interview tape for Uncle Shihiro to give to the college, but this…thing is not cooperating with me." Akane let out another frustrated grunt. "Stupid thing! Work!"

Calmly, Kasumi went up to the camera and inspected it for a moment before offering, "Why don't you let me handle the camera Akane, then all you have to worry about is your interview."

"Are you sure?" Akane asked with a look of relief. There was no way that Akane was going to force her sister into doing anything that might be a burden upon her.

"Yes," smiled Kasumi as she opened the tape holder. "But you need to find a blank tape to use."

Looking inside the camera, Akane saw that her sister was right. There was no tape in the camera for use.

_I should have added in a blank tape when I asked for the camera,_ Akane sighed as she shook her head. "I think I know where one is," she told her sister, dashing out of the dojo and up to her room.

Entering her room, Akane went straight for her closet and began digging through everything, tossing items left and right while in search of a tape. Not finding it was making Akane even more frustrated.

"Come on, I know that there was one in here. Ranma and I made that tape last year for history…Damn it!" cursed Akane, slapping aside various items of clothing and books. Kneeling on the floor Akane thought for a moment of where else she could get a blank tape. "Nabiki has one!"

Quietly, Akane exited her mess of a room and crept to her other sister's door and stopped before the duck sign.

_Should I knock?_ she wondered, biting her lower lip. _Well, I can knock softly so that when I enter and if she's there telling me to knock next time then I can just say that I did._

Decided, Akane knocked softly before entering her sister's room, only to find it empty.

"Phew." Akane was relieved since she didn't particularly want to ask her sister face to face if she could use a blank tape that would have led to either more modeling or to telling Nabiki what Uncle Shihiro had sent.

Going over to a shelf of tapes, Akane scanned the spines for a blank one. She found one at the end of the shelf, no writing on it whatsoever; it wasn't even opened from its wrapping.

"Ah-ha!"

Snatching the tape off the shelf, Akane quietly, but hurriedly, made her way back to the dojo. Waving the tape about, Akane entered the dojo only to find a chair awaiting her in front of the one wall with almost no damage. Then there was Kasumi off to the side trying to read the interview questions.

Knowing that her sister had almost no knowledge of the English language, Akane offered, "Would you like me to translate them and then you could ask them?" It would definitely make the interview a bit more professional since Akane would not be looking between the questionnaire and the camera.

Looking up, Kasumi smiled a bit bashfully as a light blush spread across her cheeks.

"I thought that I might be able to help, but I guess I should have paid more attention to my English classes," Kasumi explained, handing Akane the questions and in return Kasumi took the blank tape.

Akane just shrugged, "I don't mind re-writing these questions for you."

"Okay."

Sitting on the floor with the questions and a pen, provided by Kasumi, Akane began to rewrite the questions on the back. It was a bit difficult as Akane's mind had to change from English to Japanese then back to English.

Once all the questions had been translated, Akane handed Kasumi the sheet and took her seat in the lone chair.

"Ready?" Kasumi inquired, standing behind the camera with the questions in front of her to read.

With her heart thumping against her chest so fast, Akane took a breath to calm down. It didn't help but she knew that if she didn't get the interview over with at that moment it was never going to be done with.

"I'm ready," Akane nodded and Kasumi pressed the record button.

"Hello," Akane's English sounded a bit uncertain but controlled, "my name is Akane Tendo…"

**Thank you to: The Liz, Hououza, Livvy22, cherrybloss9, Key, Jennyroseangel, WillLeung, Miko Kagome Archer, SurfAngel, and Inda**


	7. Telling the Family

**Without You**

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

**For those who have commented on this, I know that the beginning was a bit slow but I wanted to write it that way so you as the reader could see the changes between high school and post high school, then also to compare more changes that will occur later in the story. That is my only reason for making the beginning slow. Sorry if that was a real pain to you.**

Tap. Tap. Ti-tap, ti-tap, ti-ti-tap. Akane drummed her fingers on her desk as she leaned back in her seat with her headphones on her ears and a book in front of her. It was one of the classics that most people should have read by the time they were in college, and it was written in English. Akane thought that she ought to brush up on her English while waiting for a response from her Uncle Shihiro.

It had been 8 agonizingly long months since she had received and sent in her tape to her uncle and still there was no word. He had sent her a special little card for Christmas saying that the college had gotten the tape and hadn't returned his calls, but he remained optimistic.

Akane wished she could be optimistic. What was to say that this college of _all the arts_ wasn't going to reject her like all the colleges she had tested for in Japan?

There were two soft knocks at the door, but Akane never heard them as her music was being blasted in her ears. So, while she was completely oblivious to the world around her, Akane didn't realize that her sister was in her room with her until Kasumi's smiling face was looking down at her.

"Ah!!!" Akane screamed, falling backwards in her chair. "Ugh…shi…" Her back hurt and so did her the back of her head for that matter.

"Oh Akane, are you okay?" Kasumi asked with a distressed expression as she bent down and helped her baby sister up.

"Ow! Remind me to never do that ever again," Akane muttered, rubbing the back of her head.

Kasumi smiled gently as she set her sister on the bed. "I'll go get some ice." Setting down an envelope beside Akane, Kasumi got up and went downstairs for the ice.

"That really smarts," hissed Akane, unaware of the letter until it poked at her thigh. "Huh? What's this?" Picking up the envelope, Akane saw her name written at the top in Japanese.

Biting her lower lip, Akane opened the letter, completely forgetting about the pain in the back of her head.

Recognizing the handwriting of her Uncle Shihiro, Akane's eyes widened in anticipation and worry. Was this her rejection letter? Or could it be her acceptance notice? Did she really want to find out?

Kasumi returned to Akane's room with a small bag of ice. "Here you go," she said, handing the bag to Akane. "I see you found the letter."

With the bag of ice in her lap, Akane stared down at the letter in uncertainty. She didn't want to read it, she didn't want to the read the words, 'We are sorry to inform you…' for that would be all that she would need to hear to know that the college had rejected her.

"Would you read it for me?" Akane requested, handing the letter to Kasumi.

Nodding, Kasumi took the letter and sat down at the end of the bed while Akane leaned up against the wall with the bag of ice pinched between the wall and her head.

Taking out _two_ letters from the envelope, Kasumi unfolded the first one then set it aside and opened the other letter. "'Dear Ms. Akane Tendo,'" Kasumi read, "'we at ----'s University of All the Arts are pleased to inform you that have been _accepted into our education system!_' Oh Akane!"

She couldn't breath; in fact Akane couldn't even feel her heart pounding in her chest as she echoed the word 'accepted' in her mind. Finally, she was accepted into a college, someone has accepted _her_, not Nabiki but her, Akane Tendo.

"Ahhhhh!" Akane shrieked in excitement as she lung forward and hugged her sister tightly, the bag of ice long forgotten. "Oh my God!"

Soon Ranma came racing into Akane's room ready to fight off any opponent that dared to enter Akane's room, unless it was a naked Ryoga, then Ranma was just going to laugh.

Upon entering the room, Ranma found only Akane and Kasumi in a sisterly embrace looking up at him in bewilderment.

"Hello Ranma," Kasumi greeted, "was there something you needed?"

Blinking a couple of times, Ranma leaned against the doorframe and shook his head. "I had heard someone scream and I thought that…well, anyways, it seems that it was nothing really," he explained lamely.

Starring up at Ranma, Akane noticed that on the collar of his Chinese shirt was a smudge of lipstick. Instantly she was inwardly jealous at the person, most likely Shampoo, who had been with Ranma long enough to kiss him.

_That jerk,_ Akane snorted as her eyes began to squint in a distinctive sign of anger. "Kasumi and I are quite alright, Ranma, as you can see. You can go return to Shampoo or whoever you were _entertaining_," assured Akane through clenched teeth. It was hard to hold back anger, it truly was.

"Entertaining?" echoed Ranma in confusion. "What are you talking about?!"

Getting up, Akane approached Ranma, standing so close with such a strong aura that Ranma was almost certain that he was going to get hit with the mallet again, for no reason at all.

Instead of pulling out her trusty mallet, Akane tapped the side of Ranma's shirt with that had the lipstick and stated, "Next time you don't others to know your business, don't wear it on your shirt!"

Before Ranma could respond, Akane shoved him out of her room and slammed the door in his face.

"What are you talking about you stupid tomboy?!" shouted Ranma, glaring at the door before stalking down the hall to his room. "Honestly, does she have to make such a big deal out of nothing?"

Meanwhile, in Akane's room, the youngest Tendo gave her door a good little kick as she turned back to Kasumi.

"That jerk, acting like he didn't know that there was a smudge of lipstick on his shirt," muttered Akane, still mad at her fiancée.

Kasumi hadn't really been paying attention as she was reading the letter from their Uncle Shihiro and a look of utter worry crossed her features. "Oh my. Akane, your plane leaves tomorrow morning," she told her sister.

"What?" Walking over to the bed, Akane took the letter out of Kasumi's hands and read over it. "'Enclosed is a one way ticket to the USA for Friday the 18th in May. We only wish for you to come to the United States early so that you may get used to the new surroundings and get some practice with the language before going to class. I hope that you have told your family by now.' Oh great…" Akane groaned.

Getting up, Kasumi went to the door and turned to her sister. "Why don't you tell everyone at dinner, Akane? Then we can work out a plan on getting you to Tokyo. In the meantime, why don't you start packing a bag or two to take with you?"

"Kasumi, do you think that I should be leaving Japan just to go to a college that is kilometers away from home?" Akane inquired, starring down at the letter that contained her plane ticket.

Smiling softly, Kasumi answered, "Akane, you've wanted to go to college since you got out of school, but I also think you need some time away from Nerima. It will do you some good to stay with Uncle Shihiro and Aunt Lorain."

Filled with new confidence, Akane nodded. "Thank you Kasumi."

"Sure thing. Just remember to tell everyone at dinner."

Nodding numbly, Akane faintly heard the door close before she turned to her room and began to search for items she knew she needed.

At the beginning of dinner, Akane sat there playing with her food as she thought of a way to start up the topic of her going to college in the United States. Nothing seemed to work for her, then again it didn't help that Ranma was still wearing the lipstick marked shirt.

_He wears it like it's some sort of badge of honor,_ remarked Akane bitterly.

"So Akane," Soun spoke up, "what was that letter Shihiro sent you?"

Ranma tensed, he had almost completely forgotten about that mysterious Shihiro person who had sent Akane a package several months ago. Now that Mr. Tendo had mentioned the name, Ranma felt intrigued to know what his latest present to Akane was.

"He was just informing me of a decision," Akane lamely answered, hoping to dampen any further questioning.

"What decision?" Nabiki piped up from across the table.

Looking over at Kasumi for some reassurance, Akane found her older sister giving her a supportive smile and that made all the difference for the youngest Tendo.

"Well, back in October Uncle Shihiro," Akane began.

_Uncle?!_ Ranma's mind repeated. _That was her _Uncle_?! I wasn't even aware that she had an Uncle!_

"He had sent me that package and he had offered me the opportunity to go to college in the USA." Akane waited for her family's reaction to the news. Her father began to choke on his food and Nabiki's eyes widened by a minor fraction that most people would have thought that she was unfazed by the news. Genma turned to Soun with a look that simply said, 'What are we going to do now?' and Ranma was in complete shock.

"So little sis, what was the verdict? Did you get rejected again?" Nabiki smirked, she had already figured out the answer. She only asked because she knew that no one else would have.

Akane grinned sheepishly as she lowered her head a bit. "Actually, I got accepted."

Instead of hearing the sounds of joyous cheers like she expected, Akane only heard her father ask her, "When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," Akane answered.

Unconsciously Ranma balled his hands into fist in his lap. How could she just suddenly pick up and leave like that?!

"WHAT?!" both fathers yelled.

"That leaves us no time to prepare the wedding then," Genma declared, surprising both Ranma and Akane.

"Wedding? Pops, what the hell are you talking about? What wedding?" Ranma questioned, partially frightened about the answer. Ranma had a fairly good idea of whose wedding it was supposed to be but he just wanted to be certain.

Genma gave his son an irritated glare. "Yours and Akane's, boy!"

"Excuse me?!" Akane voiced, slamming her chopstick on the table.

"That's right Akane, there's no way that you're leaving this country still unmarried to Ranma," Soun stated while Genma nodded in the background.

Angered that her father was even considering trying to marry Ranma and herself again, Akane got up and stalked out of the room and up the stairs to her bedroom. It hurt Akane that her father was throwing all this at her during her last night home, but it hurt even more that he wasn't supporting her or giving her any sort of praise.

Downstairs, Kasumi gathered Akane's food onto a tray while both fathers argued with Ranma about the marriage plans.

Normally, Kasumi would have not interfered but since it did concern her sister's current happiness, she felt the need to intervene.

"Father, perhaps you could go upstairs and give this to Akane. I'm sure she's hungry or she will be hungry shortly with all the packing she has been doing all day," suggested Kasumi holding out the tray.

Seeing it as an excellent time to convince his youngest daughter to marry Ranma, Soun gladly agreed and took the tray, but Kasumi didn't let him leave yet.

"Perhaps you should apologize too, father," Kasumi whispered. "This trip is not just about Akane going to college, it's about her getting the proper training that she _needs_ and about her own _happiness_."

Surprised at his eldest daughter's words, Soun nodded soberly and went to see Akane, and to get everything straightened before she left him for the United States tomorrow.

**Thank you to: **

**Hououza, ****The Liz, ****Ulitheal, ****black-lotusblossom,** **Hanoi, ****Tenshi-no-Hana-chan, ****Jennyroseangel****, and Key. Thank you so much for your support!**


	8. Leaving

**Without You**

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

"Akane? Akane, open up! Akane!" Soun implored as he rapped on the door of his youngest daughter's room. She was being stubborn by not opening the door and ignoring her father despite the aroma of food. "Open the door Akane or I'll break it down!"

When there was no reaction to his threat, Soun backed up to get a running start to break the door down with his shoulder. Just as Soun was about to collide with the door though, the door swung open and Soun found himself in his daughter's room trying to regain his composure without spilling the tray of food.

Taking the tray of food from her father, Akane set it down on her desk and turned to find her father straightening himself.

"Akane…" Soun began, only to be interrupted by his daughter.

"Dad, I'm going to Uncle Shihiro's with or without your approval. Uncle Shihiro's giving me a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to America and to go a college of _all_ the arts, a place where I can take martial arts as my major!" Akane declared, gesturing vaguely to her already packed suitcase and backpack.

Closing her eyes, she waited for her dad to break into a lecture of the reasons why she shouldn't be going to America, reasons one through three would be because Akane and Ranma were not married.

"Good luck then."

Eyes snapping open, Akane stared at her father in disbelief for a long while with her mouth partly opened. "Ar-are you serious?" she stuttered a bit, still in shock.

"Yes, after," Akane could feel the aforementioned lecture coming on, "you've been married to Ranma."

Wanting nothing more than to melt into the carpeting or bang her head against the desk, Akane groaned in annoyance. "But daddy…"

"Let me finish Akane," Soun interjected and Akane rolled her eyes before taking a seat at the desk. "I don't want you to leave Japan unmarried only to return home married to a man you found in America."

Again, Akane rolled her eyes. This was ridiculous! Who she married should never be her parent's choice but rather her own! Who was to dictate whom she married?

"Now, I could possibly have a priest come over tonight and we can have a small ceremony with some friends and family members…" explained Soun as he began to tear.

Hanging her head, Akane began chanting, _Think Akane, think! There must be somewhere to stop this!_ An idea finally struck her after the fourth repeat.

"Daddy, how many failed weddings have we had in the past three years?" Akane inquired innocently, leaning back in the chair as her father stopped his sudden pacing.

"Failed weddings, bah! How can you think about the past when we have your future with Ranma to plan out before you leave tomorrow? Now, of course Ranma will have to escort you to the airport and see you off like a good husband and…" Soun continued.

This needed to stop. "What makes you think this 'wedding' won't end up like the other two in the past?" Akane pointed out as she grabbed her bowl of cold rice and began to eat.

Soun paused for a moment and held his chin between his thumb and finger. "Good point, we'll have to keep this as a family affair then," he decided with an offhanded shrug.

Akane shook her head while saying, "Dad, have you forgotten where we live and who Ranma's other fiancées are? Ukyou, Shampoo, Kodachi, and everyone else would know about the 'wedding' and ruin the entire thing again."

"Yes, but hopefully by that time you and Ranma will be married," Soun stated.

"Excuse me, but you were the one who said-and I quote-"lingering relationships should be settled before a couple can be married" and don't try to deny saying that dad." Soun opened his mouth to defend himself but Akane continued, "And you also said that the wedding was to be postponed until Ranma and I sorted out our personal affairs. Unless you're blind, anyone can plainly see that our so-called 'personal affairs' haven't been sorted out. Thus, you and Mr. Saotome can't force Ranma and me to marry before I leave for America."

Akane smiled to herself as she thought, _Even Nabiki would have to admit that I handled that pretty well._ To say the least, Akane was very pleased with her well won victory.

"That was all before you decided to pack up and leave for America, out of watchful eyes," Soun tried to argue.

"I hate to tell you this dad but you never said that Ranma or I couldn't move away before 'sorting out our personal affairs'," Akane pointed out, getting to her feet. "So, it would be completely useless to try to get me and Ranma married tonight; it's not as though either of us would say 'I do' anyways."

Opening his mouth to say something, anything really, Soun found that he had nothing to argue with. Instead, Soun resigned himself to the fact that he could do nothing to marry his daughter before she left for a college that was countries away from home. That didn't mean he was down for the count though.

"Fine, I promise to keep my word of honor and keep the wedding postponed until you and Ranma have taken care of your other relationships, but Ranma is still to take you to the airport and see you off. Also, you and Shihiro will mail us reports of your training and college progress, monthly. I will not hear any argument to these conditions!" Soun stated.

Akane agreed, as much as she loathed to. "Fine, he'll take me to the airport and mail you guys reports of my progress."

"Good," Soun smiled, his features finally softening into that of a father who was proud of his child. "I'm so proud of you Akane; you got into-what sounds like-a great college! Give me a hug."

With a smile of contentment, Akane willfully gave her father a hug, possibly the last one she would share with him for a long while.

_America__, here I come.

* * *

_

Ranma hated this! He had been in foul mood since dinner the night before but his horrid mood worsened when Genma informed him that he, Ranma Saotome, was to take Akane to the airport. Alone!

So, here he was on a train to Tokyo with Akane sitting next to him re-reading her pamphlet of the school.

Although he didn't show it, it bothered Ranma that Akane was just picking up and leaving them to go train in a foreign land. Especially since he wasn't going to be going to make certain that…no one died from her cooking. Yeah, that was it, to make certain no one died from Akane's horrible cooking!

Glancing at Akane from the corner of his eye, Ranma watched as her lips moved to form the English words but not a sound came out. She was completely engrossed in the pamphlet and she was obviously nervous for her hands trembled.

With a sigh, Ranma sat back and decided that perhaps he should quit giving Akane the silent treatment.

"So what is this college? A place for brainy people who use big words that most people had no idea even existed?" he spoke up, startling Akane for a moment before she composed herself.

"Actually," Akane replied, "it's a college of all the arts, including martial arts."

Ranma closed his eyes to hide the fact that he was impressed. What college normally offered martial arts as a subject?

"Mph, you'll need all the training you can get with how you've been sparring lately a five year old could get the best of you," Ranma remarked a bit harshly, causing Akane's ki to flare.

With her hand twitching for the mallet, Akane moved down a couple of seats away from Ranma to calm herself.

"Now I remember why you and I never can get married, we can't get along even for a few minutes," muttered Akane, resting her feet on the seats and pointedly looking down at the pamphlet.

"Sorry that the truth hurts so much," Ranma retorted defensively. "Besides, it's not my fault we can't get along! _You_'re just too touchy whenever I point out your mistakes."

Setting aside her reading material, Akane stood up and moved to sit in one of the empty seats near the back. If he was going to keep this up then Akane would have smashed him into the ceiling with her mallet.

"Insensitive jerk," she grumbled staring out the window to watch the scenery pass by in the 6 o'clock sunlight. It was a bit of a surreal image but very beautiful to watch, especially at the speed of the train.

Positioning himself into a lying position, Ranma gazed at Akane before turning away with a sniff. What did he say this time to make her so mad? Why was it always something he said or did that angered Akane?

Deciding to forget the entire matter, Ranma closed his eyes to try to catch a couple more minutes of sleep before having to get off the train.

Spending the rest of the train ride in silence and separated, the two late teens arrived at the stop and exited the train station to make their way to the airport. It was actually Ranma's first time in an airport before and it amazed him a bit with the number of people entering and exiting the place.

"Ranma, come on," Akane spoke up with a tone of annoyance as she stood in line to receive her boarding pass.

Catching up with Akane, Ranma stood behind her while staring up at the surroundings.

It didn't take long before it was Akane's turn.

Approaching the lady who was to handle the boarding pass and baggage, Akane handled everything and even exchanged a few words of English with the woman. As the woman found the information for Akane, she inquired about Ranma's ticket.

"Isn't your husband going with you?" the woman inquired.

Feeling a blush creep up her back and neck, Akane hastily explained that she and Ranma weren't married and how he was just escorting her to security checkpoint.

With the explanation, the woman made no other comment but she kept giving Ranma and Akane thoughtful looks.

"Here you go," the woman said, handing Akane her only suitcase, "you can set it down over there." She motioned to line of suitcases off to the side.

"Thank you," Akane nodded, taking her suitcase and carrying her backpack over to the other luggage.

"Where do we go now?" Ranma asked.

"This way," directed Akane, leading the way to the security checkpoint where a line stretching for several meters stood.

Setting down her bag, Akane turned to Ranma with a small smile on her face. "Well, I guess this is where we say 'good-bye'," she sighed, ignoring the slight feeling of loss.

"Yeah, so good bye," Ranma shrugged lamely and for several moments the two just stood looking at each other awkwardly.

Biting her lower lip, Akane suggested, "I suppose we could hug or something, then go our separate ways."

"Okay," Ranma agreed.

Both of them opened their arms for a hug and uncertainly gave each other a light embrace, after having to figure out which way their arms were going to wrap. Releasing each other from the momentary yet uneasy hug, Ranma and Akane fidgeted.

"See ya, Ranma," Akane murmured before turning around and heading to take her place at the end of the line.

Taking a seat, Ranma watched Akane move through the line and get past security until she was out of sight. Then, with a glance at the nearest clock, Ranma stood up cursing.

"I missed my train just to see her off!" he realized, making a mad dash out of the airport and back to the train station.

**Thank you to: The Liz, Hououza, Miko Kagome Archer, cherrybloss9, Jennyroseangel, ranmakane4ver, Mensa-13, panda-tiney, black-lotusblossom, Ulitheal, Key, Trevelyan Duke, and Hanoi. **

**Wow, that's a lot of people, not that I'm complaining or anything, but…wow! I'm honored, really, to have so many people reading this fic of mine. Also, thank you all for bearing with my horrible grammar, I know it's horrible and no amount of my reading and re-reading can cure it, I've tried. Anyways, thank you all.**


	9. American Greeting

**Without You**

**I** don't own **Ranma**** ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

**Sorry people but you must go at least one more chapter without knowing who the students are. Don't worry, I'll be introducing them in the next chapter, which I will hopefully have up for next weekend.**

**Also, I'm not quite certain if people on planes going to or coming from Japan would go to Alexandria International Airport. I'm letting you know that right now. And I did as much research about it as I could but found nada.**

She had tried so hard to sleep, even for a few minutes, on the plane but nothing worked. Akane was just too worked up about finally being able to go to America to actually sleep.

Instead Akane rotated between watching some American movie, reading her novel, 'Emma', and daydreaming of what life in the United States might be like. There were always the rumors that Akane heard about Americans, and most of them were rather negative. Of course all the rumors came from people who had never been to America.

_I can't go into the country with any biases, I have to go with an open mind, _Akane thought as she fastened her seatbelt and the television monitors turned off.

"Ladies and gentlemen we will soon be landing at Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana. At this time please turn off all electronic devices, fasten your seat belts, and make certain your seat and tray are in the upright position. Thank you," came one of the flight attendant voices over the intercom.

Plucking her headphones off her head, Akane adjusted her seat and stared out the window. She was fortunate enough to have a window seat; she was going to get a bird's eye view of her new home, even if it was dark outside.

"First time in America?" inquired the man next to Akane. He seemed to be very nervous about the flight since he gripped the armrests so tightly that his knuckles were turning white and he had his eyes closed, as though in pain.

Figuring out that the man was afraid to fly and was talking to keep his mind off the fact that the plane had suddenly jolted downwards to make its descent, Akane decided to speak with him.

"Yes," she replied in English. The man seemed to be American and probably understood very little or no Japanese.

"What are you coming for? School, family, work, or a new life?" continued the man, a smile twitching at the corners of his lips.

"For it all, and perhaps a bit more," answered Akane, not quite certain what she really was going to America for. Sure, she was going for the training her uncle offered, the chance to go to college, but she was also going for her own reasons. Akane felt the need to get away from the craziness of Nerima, the fiancées, the disastrous weddings, and…Ranma.

"Ah," the man sighed as though recalling his own experiences, "out to find yourself, your own niche in life. I did that and nothing good came of it with me, but," he opened his eyes for the first time and gazed at Akane, "hopefully it'll be different for you."

With an appreciative nod, Akane turned her gaze to the window and saw the lights of the city and airport blinking out at her. _Please, don't let me regret any of this. _

_

* * *

_

Following English directions were a bit more difficult than what Akane thought it would have been. Americans just spoke too fast for her understanding that Akane found herself having to ask repeatedly for directions to where she went to get out of the terminal.

When she found her way out of the terminal, Akane didn't have to look any further than a tall, Japanese man who stood with a cheerful smile and had red-probably dyed-hair. Despite not having seen him for at least ten years, Akane recognized the man as Kamui Kusankagi, her twenty-ish year old cousin.

"Akane!" he greeted, approaching the girl and giving her a hug then lifting her up and spin around a few times.

"Kamui, is that really you?" Akane asked, still speaking in Japanese and she wanted to kick herself; she was in America now, she had to learn sooner or later to use the English language.

"Of course, do you know any other guy that could possibly look this handsome?" Kamui joked, giving Akane a playful wink. "Now, what do you say we go look for your luggage and then drive home for some sleep, unless you're not tired from all the sleep you got on the flight over."

Smiling weakly, Akane assured, "I didn't sleep at all. I was just too excited to sit still long enough to fall asleep without my mind wandering off."

"Oh wow, you were that excited? That's great; you'll be even more excited when I tell you that tomorrow night you're going to be introduced to our martial arts students. There are three who are especially interested in meeting you, other than Matsu," hinted Kamui, causing Akane to groan.

"You shouldn't have said that, now you've got my curiosity piqued and I won't be able to sleep at all tonight!" Akane complained, punching her cousin's shoulder lightly; she wasn't quite certain how much force he could sustain quite yet.

Kamui laughed delightfully as he took Akane's hand and led her to the carousels in search of the luggage. "That was the whole idea coz, but be assured that once we get home or even in the car, you'll fall fast asleep."

Finding the correct carousel after fifteen minutes of searching, Akane watched the many pieces of luggage travel around the trek until she found her suitcase and plucked it off the conveyer belt.

Glancing down at the suitcase, Kamui raised an eyebrow. "Only one?" he asked.

"Well, I figured that I didn't need to bring much since I would probably end up buying most of my essential needs here after I've been settled in with school and a job," explained Akane.

Nodding at the reasoning, Kamui shrugged, "That's very reasonable and very logical of you Akane."

"That better not be an indirect insult," warned Akane, her hand ready to pull out the mallet if necessary. Although Akane figured that mallet would be too much at the moment and decided that she wouldn't bother with the mallet, even if provoked.

"Nah, just an observation and a compliment," assured Kamui, unaware that his cousin had been ready to draw out her infamous mallet. Having not seen his cousin for about ten years, Kamui had no idea that Akane ever used an oversized mallet to hit people-mostly one particular person-into the air.

Relaxing, Akane just muttered, "Oh," and blushed a bit in embarrassment. Here she was in America for almost an hour and already she was accusing people of insulting her and on the verge of pulling out her mallet. "Sorry," she mumbled, following Kamui out to the garage where her cousin had parked his car.

"Don't worry about it Akane, I can see where you would have taken what I said as an insult. It's all good," reassured Kamui pressing a button on his keychain to unlock the car doors.

Pausing momentarily in the back of the Ford Escort, Kamui opened the back latch so that Akane could set her suitcase and carry-on in the back. With her bags in the back, Akane moved to the passenger side of the car and waited for Kamui to get into the car before she did.

Sitting in the car, Akane let everything from the material of the seat to the steering wheel and dashboard sink into her. It wasn't her first time inside a car but it was such a rarity that it took Akane a few seconds to pull herself from her awe-struck moment.

"Buckle up," Kamui reminded, pulling his over his shoulder and snapping it into place.

"Right." Reaching over her shoulder, Akane found the strap and gave it a tug until she found the buckle, then she zipped it across her form to snap it in place. "Is this your car or is it Uncle Shihiro's?"

"It's mine," answered her cousin, starting up the car, "I pay the bills for this thing all by myself and I keep it in great condition. Dad uses it every now and then when he needs to lug new supplies to the dojo or even to the house for home improvement projects that mom has planned for him."

Akane raised an eyebrow slightly. "Home improvement projects?"

"Yeah, mom has a long list of stuff she wants re-modeled in the house. Like there was the porch in the back, but that's done, then there's the kitchen, living room, computer room, and the basement," clarified Kamui with a sort of bitter laugh. "You see, mom's under the impression that almost every single one of these projects should take no more than a week to do, but with my classes, dad's job, and the dojo to run, there's limited time to do half of the work my mom wants."

"Maybe I can help," offered Akane.

Glancing at his cousin, Kamui smiled gratefully. "We'd love to have your help Akane, there's so much to be done and with the limited manpower we need all the help we can get. Especially from people who don't mind doing some of the heavy lifting work," Kamui added.

Shocked, Akane couldn't believe that her cousin was actually accepting her help. She knew that if she had offered her help at home someone, most likely Ranma, would give her a reason or a myriad of reasons why she couldn't help. One of those reasons would be because she was a woman.

"So," Akane began, "who are these people who want to meet me? Are they students at the dojo?" Ever since Kamui had mentioned the fact that there were some people who were interested in meeting her, Akane couldn't help wondering who they were.

"Yes, they're students at the dojo, exceptional students mind you. Dad thinks that you'll like them a lot and he plans to have them be your main sparring partners beyond himself, Matsu, and me," responded Kamui, not even bothering to keep his cousin in suspense. "Personally, I don't think he could have chosen better. You'll really like them when you meet them tomorrow night."

Seeing how much information she was already able to extract from her cousin, Akane tried to pry for more. "You're not going to even tell me their names?" she taunted.

Kamui flashed her mischievous smirk and a wink. "Now why would I do that when they can introduce themselves to you tomorrow?"

Leaning back into her seat, Akane pouted a bit with her arms crossed.

"Hey coz," Kamui spoke up, "as much as I love speaking to you in Japanese, do you want to practice conversing in English a bit? I mean, you're going to have to sooner or later and I just thought that maybe you would like to practice…"

"That would nice," agreed Akane. "I do need the practice."

* * *

Waking up to the contented warmth of a giant blanket, sunlight, and a comfortable mattress to snuggle into, Akane felt like she never wanted to get up until she realized that she was not in her room. 

Jolting up into a sitting position, Akane found that she was _not_ in her room but rather a room that inhabited a television, computer, book shelves, and piano in the corner. This was most certainly not her room.

Glancing down, Akane found that she wasn't sleeping on a bed but rather a futon.

_Where am I?_ she wondered. _Was I kidnapped again? Where's my captor? Where's Ranma?_

Getting off the futon, Akane saw a pair of youthful eyes watching her curiously from the doorway. The eyes belonged to a young boy of eleven years who stood there nonchalantly with his hands stuck in his pockets and his body leaning against the doorframe.

"Are you Akane?" he spoke up in English, looking the girl up and down one last time before staring Akane in the eyes.

"I am," nodded Akane, remembering that she was at her Uncle Shihiro and Aunt Lorain's house in Louisiana, USA, "you must be Matsu. You've really grown."

She couldn't believe that the nearly pre-teen before her was the same little baby that she had held as a young girl. Ten years ago he was so small but even then he was a little fighter, and was fairly strong.

"You don't look so strong," Matsu stated bluntly.

Akane's eyes widened and she found herself to be speechless.

A nervous chuckle was heard from behind Matsu as Uncle Shihiro stepped behind Matsu and put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Now, now Matsu, that's not very nice or very smart thing to say. Never underestimate anyone, for you never know what real strength a person has until you actually spar with them," advised Shihiro. "Go help your mother with laundry."

"Oh okay," sighed Matsu, reluctantly leaving the door to go assist his mother.

"Sorry I wasn't able to pick you up personally last night, I had to handle an ordeal with one of my students," explained Shihiro with an apologetic smile. Akane didn't say anything or make a move; she was still deciphering what her uncle had told her.

"Don't I get a hug at least?" he laughed, holding out his arms.

With a smile, Akane approached her uncle and gave him a hug. It was a bit different from the greetings Akane was used to receiving: death threats, 'I'm going to defeat you' threats, ceremonial bowing, or even the throwing of lethal objects.

"It's good to have you here, Akane," Shihiro muttered, patting his niece on the back.

"It's good to be here," murmured Akane, with a content smile. _I'm here and there's no turning back, at all. No returning to Nermia, to Ranma._

**Thank you to: Hanoi, Dream Crazy, The Liz, WW1, Genkai Lady, Mensa-13, Miko Kagome Archer, ranmakane4ever, AmayaSaria, Ulitheal, meia, f-zelda, panda-tiney, Hououza, Tenshi-no-Hana-chan, shadow-mistress, black-lotusblossom, Gennie Kag's and Sess's Child, Nonny, and the-shadow002. Wow, that's…one, two…twenty reviews! Oh my God, that's a lot of support. Thanks so much.**

**Oh yeah, ****Hanoi****, I'm going to take you up on your offer to proofread my chapters in the future for grammar mistakes. No offense to anyone else, ****Hanoi**** just offered help.**


	10. The Students

**Without You**

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

_Wow_, was all Akane could think as she stared up at the dojo which was actually a workout gym that happened to have a matted gym for Uncle Shihiro to rent for his classes.

"Akane, are you going to come in or gawk at the building some more?" teased Shihiro in a low voice, carrying body matting for one of his newly returned students who had came back from the hospital and was told to take it easy.

Snapping out of her awe, Akane gave her uncle a warning glare. So far she hadn't lost her temper and she didn't plan on losing it anytime soon either.

Throughout the day Akane had gotten to see many new things, some big and some small. Like when Akane went into the kitchen for breakfast, there wasn't a spread of food and a bowl of rice waiting for the whole family to dig into. Nothing awaited her at the table except for her Aunt Lorain who had greeted Akane with hugs and kisses.

That morning, for the first time ever, Akane had to eat a traditional Japanese breakfast alone since everyone else had already eaten. Apparently, she was also the only person to actually sit at the kitchen table and eat, everyone else kept taking food and drinks into other rooms.

It was all very strange to Akane, back home she would eat all meals with her family and everyone would eat in the same area. This however, wasn't home she had to remind herself, reluctantly. This was America, not Japan.

"So what do you think of the place?" Shihiro inquired, leading Akane past all the people on treadmills and weight-lifting machines.

"It…different," she answered honestly. It was different; to Akane a dojo was a small home-like structure meant for training and had wooden walls, floors, and ceilings. This place was not only a dojo but a gym, and the students weren't going to be surrounded by wood but rather mats. Different indeed.

"Oh I bet it is," smiled Shihiro, holding open the door to the dojo room for Akane.

Entering the room Akane found it filled with about fifteen students from all different ethnic groups, various ranks in martial arts, and of both genders. Akane was relieved to find that the class had several girls.

In Nermia, martial arts had always ostracized her from other girls merely because most other girls didn't study the arts. Yet, right before her eyes, Akane saw that there were other girls like herself who had taken up the study of martial arts.

_If only Ranma could see this_, she thought. Or even better! _If Uncle Shihiro paired Ranma with one of these girls in a sparring match, I wonder how he'd handle himself then._

Akane snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed that the eyes of all students were centered on her. She received a mixture of stares; some looked upon her with intrigue, others with cockiness, and the few looked upon her with indifference.

"There's so many," she muttered, impressed that her uncle even had such a fairly large class to teach.

"Yup, and they're all mine to teach," grinned Shihiro, setting down the body padding. "Class, before we begin I would like you all to meet Akane Tendo."

For a moment Akane whipped her head toward her uncle with a questioning expression on her face. Why hadn't he mentioned that she was his niece? Was it because he didn't wish anyone to believe that she would or should be given special treatment? Whatever the reason was, Akane was grateful that he hadn't mentioned that she was his niece. She was there to train like everyone else with all the same challenges.

Ignoring Akane's look, Shihiro continued, "She has studied martial arts for years and she will be joining our classes from here on out! Make her feel welcomed and be courteous."

The "courteous" portion seemed to have directed at one individual in particular, a girl with fiery red hair and who seemed to tower over most of the other students.

Observing the girl, Akane could see the signs of an ill-tempered person who could just blow at any moment over anything. In a way, the girl reminded Akane of herself, at least a younger version of herself.

"Come on Akane, there's a few people I want you to meet," Uncle Shihiro whispered to Akane, leading her over to the back wall where three older students, probably the eldest students in the class, were lined up. "Afternoon guys," Shihiro greeted them.

"Hey Master Shihiro, what's up?" returned one of the male students. The man had spiked black hair with one streak of blue dangling in his hazel eyes. Next to him was a young girl about Akane's age with lengthy strawberry-blond hair and sparkling green eyes that seemed to reflect her every emotion.

"Michael, Stacy, Christian, I would like you three to meet the special student I have been telling you about for the last several months. Akane these three are going to be your main sparring partners: Michael Bross and his brother Christian Bross, and Stacy Revlo. I trust that you three can make Akane feel comfortable while I get the class started," Shihiro stated with a wink before leaving the four students.

The first one to speak was the boy with the blue streak. "Hi, I'm Michael and that thing over there is my younger brother Christian," he clarified.

Christian was very much like his brother except in the fact that he seemed to be more lax and had shaggy hair rather than spiked. He also didn't have the dyed streak that Michael had.

"And I'm Stacy obviously, Michael's girlfriend," the girl added politely. She hadn't said "Michael's girlfriend" in a threatening or warning tone; she just simply stated it casually.

"Akane Tendo, Shihiro's…" Akane stopped; she didn't know if she was allowed to say that she was Shihiro's niece or not.

"Niece?" offered Christian, speaking for the first time, meeting Akane's eyes. "Yeah, we kind of already knew about that, but trust me, that doesn't mean we're going to go easy on you in any way."

Liking the guy's attitude, Akane gave him a once over and smirked, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

It was one in the morning and Ranma couldn't sleep. Okay, so it hadn't been that long since Akane had left but it bothered Ranma so much that he found himself unable to sleep.

Instead he stood in a headstand position with his legs crossed Indian style over him. In Ranma's mind, if he perhaps had all his blood rush to his head his mind wouldn't be so occupied with Akane. Then he could go to sleep, hopefully.

It wasn't helping; it was actually making it worse.

He just couldn't help but feel a bit useless, defeated even, despite the fact that there hadn't been any fight that he could have lost. What was wrong with him?

"Keh, so what if that tomboy is in America, at least she's out of my sights and out of danger," snorted Ranma. "I won't have to go rescue her from some kidnapping or other, no need to bail her out of a fight with Shampoo or Kodachi, and no need to keep telling people that we're not in love."

Flipping back onto his feet, Ranma began to pace about the room, ignoring the not-so gentle snores of his father.

"Why did she have to leave? I mean sure there was that college and it sounds pretty good, but beyond that she didn't have a reason to leave so suddenly," muttered Ranma as he paced. "Why couldn't she just have gone to a college here in Japan? Were the rejections really that horrible?"

Ranma had always been aware of the rejection letters Akane had received in the past but he always brushed them off with a 'why would anyone want to go to more school?' or a 'what do you need school for?'

He never understood why Akane was so persistent about going to college, especially since she was supposed to inherit the Tendo Dojo and she would eventually marry whatever poor jerk she could trick into marrying her. So, where in that did Akane need more school?

"Stupid Akane, you always had to try and make something out of yourself," grumbled Ranma, leaving the room and blindly wandering down the hallway until he came upon Akane's room. Of course they had kept the duck sign with her name on the door; what would she do with it in America?

Raising his hand to knock on the door, Ranma stopped himself and lowered his arm.

"Idiot," he scuffed at himself, "what would you be knocking for, she's not in there or anywhere in the house."

Enclosing the brass door knob within one of his hands, Ranma couldn't help but notice how odd it felt to him to enter Akane's room without knocking or going in through the window.

Shaking off the uneasy feeling, Ranma turned the knob and pushed the door open to reveal Akane's empty room. It wasn't so much empty physically. Everything was still there; her few posters, her made-up bed, cluttered dresser that had a few books lying on top, and her window was still open, causing the drapes to swish whenever a breeze entered the room.

In the past Ranma had always felt a sense that the room was alive with Akane in it but now that she was gone the room seemed hollow, dead even.

Going over to the dresser, Ranma picked up one of Akane's American books she had been reading a few weeks ago. Carrying the book over to the bed, Ranma hesitantly sat down on the bed. He had half expected to find Akane sleeping underneath the blankets and be awoken by the shift in weight of the bed. However, nothing happened and it disappointed Ranma somewhat.

Taking a few seconds to collect himself after sitting upon the bed, Ranma glanced down at the book in his hand.

It wasn't a large book but perhaps a good 100 pages or more, and it was soft cover-Akane could never afford the hardcover books. Bringing the book close to his face Ranma tried to make out the title of the book but due to the lack of light the words were blurred and fuzzy.

Cautiously, Ranma reached over and turned on the lamp from the nightstand, he didn't wish to somehow wake the entire house up and then be questioned as to his reasons for being in Akane's room at one something in the morning.

With the light on, Ranma could see the title, "Romeo and Juliet". Ranma couldn't quite figure out what the title actually said but he felt that he knew the book from somewhere; he just couldn't place where he knew it from.

Flipping through the book, Ranma tried to read some of it but found that he couldn't understand anything except that the style of writing was that of a playwright.

Closing the book with growl of frustration, Ranma tossed the book into a corner and laid down on the bed only to stare up at the ceiling.

"Stupid English book," Ranma grunted, yet his eyes trailed over to where the book laid forlornly on the ground. Staring at the book for a while, Ranma got up and picked up the book again, placing it back on the dresser. Still, his intrigue with the book wasn't satisfied, he still felt connected to it somehow.

Flipping through the book one last time, Ranma stared hard at the English words, trying to will himself to understand their meanings. Having slept through the better part of English class, Ranma just couldn't comprehend the words on the pages and it frustrated him.

With a snort, Ranma turned off the lamp and headed to the door to go to bed. At the door he threw one last glance at the book and felt that attraction to it again.

Ranma sighed as he left the room, "I wonder if Kasumi is able to read English well enough to understand that book." With that, Ranma closed the door behind him, leaving Akane's room even emptier than what it was.

**Thank you to: The Liz, Ulitheal, Hououza, the-shadow002, angelhazel, Den Scurman, ranmababy, ****Hanoi****, Tenshi-no-Hana-chan, Jennyroseangel, black-lotusblossom.**

**Den Scurman: Thank you so much for thinking that I'm doing a good job of characterizing Akane in a realistic fashion. I really hope I don't disappoint you whether it be in the present or future.**

**I should be able to update in another two weeks, hopefully.**


	11. Dinner Table

**Without You**

**I** don't own **Ranma ½** or the **characters**, however any **OCs** in here **are** mine!

She couldn't believe it, it had been her first day in America and already she had gotten the chance to spar with Michael, even though she had wanted to spar with Christian. Akane couldn't explain it but she was intrigued by Christian, he had this direct honesty that Akane could appreciate, as long as it wasn't about her cooking.

At dinner Aunt Lorain had scolded the boys as they were about to take off to eat in the living room. Aunt Lorain had informed them that the family was going to eat together at the dining table; and this pleased Akane immensely. Since Akane had been the last person to wake up that morning she had to eat alone but since everyone was present for dinner they were all going to eat together.

The boys pleaded with Uncle Shihiro to help get them out of eating at the table, however with one glare from his wife, Shihiro was silenced.

The dinner conversation consisted of the boys and Akane telling Lorain all about their day at the dojo.

"How was your first sparring match, Akane? Was it better or worse than the ones you had with Ranma?" Uncle Shihiro inquired, speaking when Kamui paused in his story of his match with Christian.

Akane paused a moment to think about it. While sparring she hadn't necessarily compared it to how Ranma and she had sparred in the past, but there were several differences between sparring with Michael and sparring with Ranma.

"It was different really, in a good way. I mean Michael was a lot more offensive than what Ranma is, like starting off with knuckle punch," Akane answered.

"Oh yeah, then you blocked it left and tried to kick him in the face," Kamui joined in.

"Which Michael blocked," added Shihiro, for his wife's information.

"And returned with a right elbow strike to the solar plexus," Kamui continued, demonstrating at the table.

"Watch what you're doing!" warned Aunt Lorain.

"But I blocked with my left again and tried to punch him right," Akane jumped in.

Kamui pounded the table, causing all the dishes to rattle. "That's right but he blocked that too as well as the left punch, then Michael narrowly avoided your kick to the head by leaning back. He's just lucky to be so flexible."

Sending her son a warning glare to settle down before turning to Akane with an intrigued smile. "So, did you win?" she asked.

"No," Akane shrugged.

Lorain raised an eyebrow at Akane first then glanced at Shihiro for some sort of explanation as to why Akane wasn't upset about being beaten. Shihiro refused to meet his wife's eye and focused all his attention on his food.

"You're not upset about it?" Lorain questioned.

Akane snapped her head up and shook her head. "Nah, he won fair and square, plus he didn't take me lightly. Michael even told me that that was one of the harder sparring matches he ever had."

"Understandable," Kamui nodded. "Most other people try to do some fancy footwork since most of our students had previously taken Tae Won Do or some other form of martial arts that involve lots of fancy kicks more than effective attacks. You on the other hand use effective attacks to your advantage that release the least amount of energy. So naturally you would be a more difficult opponent."

"You think so?" Akane asked, a bit dubious.

"Yeah, plus you have the experience of years on your side and a dojo teacher as your father," Kamui assured, stabbing at his macaroni and cheese.

Setting his cup of tea on the table, Shihiro included, "This first spar has also given us an idea of some of the areas we need to work with you on and what sort of exercises to give you."

While chewing on her food, Akane nodded her head, staring at her uncle.

"Well, that's great! It sounds as though you're off to a great start in America Akane," commented Lorain, taking a bite of her dinner.

Uncle Shihiro through his wife a knowing grin that made her stop chewing. Her husband was up to something and it was most likely something she wasn't going to agree with.

"Of course Akane, to succeed in furthering your training and skill you will need motivation," Shihiro told her and Akane opened her mouth to protest, however, her uncle held up a hand to silence her. "Now, I know you are motivated right now but you need something more, a goal to work towards that will keep you moving. So, I have a task for you."

Akane swallowed her food then inquired, "What would that be?"

"Search for some sort of tournament that you would like to enter either this year, next year, or the year after, I don't care but it must be something you want to do and will work towards," Shihiro told her.

"Hey, what about…?" Kamui began to suggest before he abruptly cut off to rub his shin.

"What? What about what?" Akane inquired, interested in any suggestion her cousin might have.

"Nothing," groaned Kamui, still rubbing his shin. "Forget about it."

Aunt Lorain turned to Akane with a tightened smile that made Akane suspect that it was her Aunt's foot that made Kamui halt mid-sentence. "You can always begin your search for a _legitimate_ contest tomorrow," she told Akane. "For right now let's just finish dinner and Matsu, your teacher called again. Something about fighting in school, again, and how you're close to getting suspended, again."

Looking up from her plate, Akane saw how her younger cousin sunk a bit in his seat and turn red in the ears.

"Ma, I was only trying to keep Bobby Johan from harassing Becky McDonald," Matsu defended, trying to keep a whine from his voice. He didn't meet anyone's eyes as he stared down at his plate when he mentioned Becky's name, and his face began to grow red.

Kamui threw Akane a teasing grin and opened his mouth to say something to Matsu, but Akane stomped on Kamui's toe, hard enough to cause him to close his mouth and pout.

"That doesn't mean you go and punch the boy, Matsu," Lorain stated, calmly, in a manner that Akane could have compared to Kasumi's motherly mannerism. "If the boy is harassing the girl, as you say-by the way, where did you learn that word?-then you go tell the teacher. Don't take such things into your own hands ever again."

Matsu rolled his eyes and Akane felt her sympathy go out toward her younger cousin, she knew what it was like to be scolded for fighting for what you felt was right; Kasumi had rebuked Akane for fighting at school several times in the past, even saying that Dr. Tofu may not like her anymore if she continued to fight.

"Yes mother, and I learned the word 'harass' in school as we have been learning about sexual harassment and harassment in general," Matsu replied, picking at his food some more.

The rest of dinner conversation had been about Aunt Lorain's job and her general day, as well as about the upcoming day when Akane will get to tour the college campus. It was in a week and Akane was a little nervous as to what she was going to find at the college.

_I wonder what everyone at home is doing, _she thought.

* * *

Ranma woke up earlier than usual and crept down the stairs to the kitchen, with Akane's book in one hand hidden behind his back, where he found Kasumi preparing breakfast. Knowing how lazy his father had grown over the past few years, Ranma didn't need to fear an interruption to spar.

Knocking on the door, Ranma startled Kasumi as he judged by the momentarily hesitation of her stirring. The eldest Tendo daughter turned to her sister's fiancée with her patented smile that was welcoming, forgiving, and comforting for everyone.

"Good morning Ranma, breakfast won't be ready for a while but you can always have a piece of fruit or something until then," she informed him, gesturing to the refrigerator.

"Uh…no thanks, actually I had a question to ask you," he corrected Kasumi, catching her attention.

"Oh? About what?" Kasumi inquired, leaning against the counter for a moment while keeping one eye on the heating pot of water next to her.

"I was wondering if…" Ranma fidgeted with the book in his hand, putting his free hand behind his back so that he could shift the book back and forth between hands. "If you could read English."

Kasumi cocked her head to the side in a manner that made it difficult to tell if she was trying to discover Ranma's motive for asking or if she was trying to figure out how much English she remembered.

The moment that it took for Kasumi to answer was an agonizingly long moment and it made Ranma more anxious as well as feel as though hours, perhaps years, had passed instead of mere seconds that transcended into a moment. It should have been an easy question with an easy answer, yes or no.

"I do remember some from high school but I'm not quite certain it's that great. I have been out of practice for quite some time now," Kasumi answered with an apologetic smile that soon turned quizzical. "Why do you ask? Was there something you needed said or read?"

Ranma shifted his weight from one foot to the other along with the book as he deliberated rather to ask Kasumi to translate the book's title or not. On one hand his curiosity would be satisfied but on the other he might have to explain how he had been in Akane's room in the wee hours of the morning and found the book on her desk.

Glancing up, Ranma saw Kasumi still eyeing him patiently. She wasn't going to push him into answering her question nor was she going to pry further than he wanted her to, that was just how she was. It was a trait Ranma had grown to appreciate about Kasumi, one that the other two Tendo daughters lacked.

"Yeah, I wanted to know what the title of this book was," Ranma shrugged, pulling out the book and sliding it across the counter to Kasumi.

Stopping the book with a hand, Kasumi glanced down at the cover and she didn't have to even read the English letters to know what the book was. The cover with the girl in a lovely gown standing on a balcony reaching for a handsome young man gave away the title. It cause Kasumi to smile a bit, her sister was possibly one of the most romantic-dreamers but she kept that hidden from others.

"This is 'Romeo and Juliet', Ranma," Kasumi told him, holding up the book. "It is that play you were in with Akane a few years back. The one where the prize was to see the famous actor China."

Ranma momentarily groaned at the memory of how he had so eagerly taken the role as Romeo thinking that he would get to fly to China for free and be able to find the Spring of Drown Man. Some prize that had turned out to be.

_However, _he thought, _you were so close to kissing Akane…_

Realizing exactly what he had just thought, Ranma almost literally kicked himself.

_Idiot! That was the only time that the tom boy was ever cute, and besides she put that piece of tape on!_

"Do you plan on reading this?" Kasumi questioned, sliding the book back to Ranma.

Picking up the book, Ranma looked at the cover and made a disgusted face. It looked like some sort of silly, sappy, love-sick romance. Nothing that he, the great Ranma Saotome, would ever read.

"No, I was just curious," Ranma scoffed, tossing the book onto the counter and leaving. "Thanks for your help Kasumi."

**Thank you to: The Liz, Ulitheal, Hououza, the-shadow002, Den Scurman, Tenshi-no-Hana-chan, Jennyroseangel, black-lotusblossom, AmayaSaria, panda-tiney, shadow-mistress, V-Chan14, and Koneko8844.**

**Heh he! I'm finally done with this and it's only ****12:43 am**** central time in the ****USA****. About time, eh? Hopefully a sooner updation for the next chapter. See you guys then.**


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